Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:54 pm on 5 November 2019.
Dirprwy Lywydd, can I welcome what Mark Isherwood said at the beginning about his party's support for the approach to women's imprisonment that this Government has adopted and worked with some of his colleagues in London on as well? We welcomed David Gauke's, when he was the Secretary of State at the Ministry for Justice, policy of abolishing short sentences of imprisonment. I fear, Dirprwy Lywydd, that, in the way that Mark Isherwood said policies come and go, this policy may have come and may already be going under the next occupant of the Ministry of Justice.
Mark Isherwood asked me about the constitutional argument, and I think, for me, it's always been relatively simple, really: decisions that affect only people in Wales should be made only by people in Wales. Given that these are decisions we're talking about that affect people who are in Wales, then the devolution of those services to be made by people elected to this National Assembly seems to me entirely consistent with that basic constitutional principle.
I don't myself believe that the cross-border issue is quite the showstopper that some Members here are trying to suggest. Even in a service as wholly devolved as the health service, we have a burns unit in Singleton hospital that is a regional resource that serves the south-west of England as well. It is perfectly possible, even when matters are devolved, to have proper collaboration and to work with others in pursuit of common ambitions, and I'm sure that we would be able to do that. The report actually deals with cross-border issues far more extensively, I think, than simply its county lines observation. It deals with the whole business of appointments of justices, how solicitors are qualified on an England-and-Wales basis; it regularly attends to cross-border issues.
But, in the constructive spirit that this discussion has been conducted, I'll end by thanking Mark Isherwood for the points he made at the end about the way in which different constitutional formats inside the United Kingdom would require us to look differently at how some of these cross-border matters would be resolved, and look forward to going on working with Members in all parts of the Chamber in order to make the most we can of this landmark report.