Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:04 pm on 30 January 2019.
Yes. I don't think I qualified my words in any way at all. Certainly the Welsh Government hasn't qualified its words at all. What the Welsh Government has said is that this has to be done as part of a process. It's not qualified its support for the devolution of the criminal justice system.
We need to devolve and then unite the policy area. We need to ensure that we have a secure estate, we have the support in social services, and we're able to deliver a holistic approach to criminal justice, and we can't do that at the moment. This is probably the only area of policy where neither the Welsh Government nor the UK Government is able to deliver its policy ambitions in Wales. It's a real achievement for both Governments to fail to deliver their policy objectives.
I did regret the tone and content of the speech from the Conservative spokesperson in this debate this afternoon. I will say to him that the conversations that I had with Ministry of Justice and Home Office Ministers were far more constructive than perhaps he's been briefed about. The Ministers in London—in Westminster—are very aware of the failings of the system in Wales and aware of the reasons for the failings of this system.