8. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services: Towards a Distinct Approach to the Penal System in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:29 pm on 11 December 2018.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 5:29, 11 December 2018

I think Jenny Rathbone, as she does very often, of course, has identified the key challenge facing us. I'm grateful to you, Jenny, for your support for the approach that we're taking, but you're absolutely right: the judgment will be on our actions and not our speeches, and I certainly do recognise that. But let me say a word about the approach that I've taken and how I've sought to address exactly the challenge you've described this afternoon. At the moment, many of the difficulties we face are because we do have a broken settlement, where we're unable to deliver a holistic approach to policy.

In creating the policing board for Wales, which met for the first time a few weeks ago, we are looking at developing an approach through the police and through agencies working alongside the police that will treat vulnerability in a way that would have been unimaginable 10, 20 or 30 years ago. So, we're changing the way that we police many of our communities, and a conversation I had yesterday with the chief constable and the police and crime commissioner in Dyfed-Powys reflected many of the sorts of conversations that we've been having, and I believe the policing board will enable us to begin the job of bringing together, if you like, different arms of policy, different agents of policy, and different authorities to work in a more coherent way and to treat vulnerability in a way we simply couldn't do before.

We then need to bring the penal system into that, and the wider criminal justice system into that as well, and I believe that we can do that. I believe that what I've seen from people working within the system is an absolute commitment to the debate that we've had this afternoon, and to the values that have driven the debate that we've had this afternoon. So, I believe that we can do that as well. What I've sought to do at every occasion has been to seek agreement with the Ministry of Justice and with the Home Office to enable us to move forward.

As I said in answer to an earlier question, these people are suffering today and are being failed today. Providing a speech on the future constitution of the United Kingdom is not a sufficient answer to the issues they face in their daily lives. So, we've sought to deliver an approach that may not deliver everything that we would like to see, but it is beginning to deliver an approach to preventative measures that will have an impact in the future.

But let me say this, in closing: I believe that there are examples around the world of Governments who have succeeded in delivering real, preventative actions that have addressed vulnerable people and vulnerable families and vulnerable communities. I believe we have a lot to learn from those Governments and those approaches. I believe that the approaches that we've been taking in terms of some of the initiatives we've taken in local government and elsewhere are beginning to find a way towards addressing those issues. But what I will say is this—that the principles of justice should run through all of our work as a Government, because what I've been seeing is that people who are, as you say, in the county lines environment, are not there because they want to offend. They're not there because they want to take and deal in drugs. But they're there because they've been failed and because they see no alternative to doing so. It is creating those alternatives that is our challenge and what we have to do, and I believe, as a Government here in Wales, we can do that.