Diolch, Llywydd. I’m pleased to move the motion today with colleagues Mike Hedges, Sian Gwenllian and Julie Morgan. Our motion is in three parts: firstly, noting that policing is devolved to the other two devolved nations of the UK; secondly, calling for the devolution to Wales of policing—the only nation where it is not devolved; and thirdly, expressing the view that certain specialist areas of policing are best co-ordinated at a UK level.

The anomaly of Wales is, of course, further confused by the fact that, with the election of their first metropolitan mayor, powers over policing have now been devolved to Manchester, yet the devolution of policing to Wales remains frustratingly stalled. Despite wide-reaching consensus in this Senedd, Westminster has no plans to transfer powers over policing to Wales. It was disappointing not to see its inclusion in either the 2014 or the 2017 Wales Acts, despite it being a recommendation of the cross-party Silk commission all those years ago. Two legislative opportunities to act have been and gone and no progress has been made.

This is not just a point, though, of constitutional principle. It makes perfect sense for decisions about all our emergency services to be made at the national level. Currently policing is the only emergency service not to be devolved, yet modern policing involves considerable overlap between public services and other devolved areas of responsibility. The police, of course, already have to work closely alongside colleagues in health and education. While our public services often work very well together, there is evidence that co-operation could be improved even further if powers to make the strategic decisions were held here in this country.

Today’s cross-party motion sets out a sensible approach to the devolution of policing. For most people, what matters, of course, is the police services that they are most likely to come into contact with day to day. What people want is community policing, not just that traditional idea of the bobby on the beat, but a police service that is equipped with local intelligence and the ability to respond to the needs of the communities that they represent. The budget for community policing is no longer ring-fenced and, although forces must guarantee a minimum level of neighbourhood policing, how this is actually delivered varies hugely from force to force. Where once each ward had a ward officer responsible for building relationships with communities and growing trust in the local area, I think many people feel as though that connection is being lost and, with it, effective intelligence-led community policing.

The most recent ‘State of Policing’ report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary highlights their concern that neighbourhood policing is being eroded. But with police forces experiencing Government funding cuts of 22 per cent, on average, between 2010 and 2015, and many still seeing their operational budgets continue to shrink, forces have had to respond by cutting workforces. HMIC’s report found that some forces have struggled to respond to reductions in the level of resources available to them. Poorly planned, short-term reactions to immediate budget pressures are putting vulnerable people at serious risk of harm in some forces, and a large number of crimes are being effectively written off rather than finding a satisfactory conclusion for the victim and the community.

From a policy perspective, devolution of policing to Wales would provide the ability to prioritise community policing and embed that principle across the entire devolved Welsh public sector. There would be a financial benefit, too, to meet that policy aspiration. By Plaid Cymru’s calculations, if Wales were treated as a policing entity with parity with the other devolved countries, Welsh police forces would be more than £25 million a year better off, as Barnett would apply. If the Barnett formula was used to fund our forces in line with population, it would result in a significant increase in their budgets.

As noted in the motion, there are elements of specialist policing, such as counter-terrorism, where UK-wide co-ordination makes perfect sense. On these matters, where there is often an international element, it is usually state-wide bodies that lead and co-ordinate, especially when these relate to the work of the security and intelligence services. One can think of the Federal Bureau of Investigations in the United States or the Bundespolizei in Germany, for example. With any emergency service, there’s always a need to ensure collaboration across national borders, of course. Indeed, that is already the case with the ambulance service and the fire and rescue services between Wales and England.

In terms of policing, mutual aid has existed for a considerable time and would, of course, apply if and when policing were devolved to Wales. In these islands, mutual assistance is enshrined in relations between the different jurisdictions already. In Ireland, where there is, in effect, an international frontier, the Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1975 in Northern Ireland and the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Act 1976 in the Republic allow for each jurisdiction the ability to treat and deal with a specific range of offences committed in the other’s jurisdiction as if it had occurred in their own.

To conclude, Llywydd, devolution of policing is desirable from a policy and co-ordination perspective in terms of restoring community policing and greater collaboration across public services. Devolution of policing is in Wales’s financial interests, where a devolution dividend would allow us to invest more in making our communities safer. Devolution of policing is operationally sound, as almost any other state in the world proves, and is evident already in the different policing jurisdictions in these islands. An affirmative vote from this Assembly today will provide a clear demand to the next UK Government to address this unnecessary anomaly.