Like all Welsh public services, the police service has been subject to austerity since the banking crash of 2008, and every police service in this country has seen its front-line contact with the public diminish as police stations have closed and police bases placed further away from the communities that they serve. Everyone that I have spoken to who works in the police service wants more resources. There are now specific COVID-related issues that the police have seen place extra demands, additional demands, on their time and resources. I'd like to take this opportunity to add my thanks to everybody who has worked on the front line in the police service and all other key workers, who've seen their working lives altered beyond all recognition as a result of this COVID crisis. It's important to put on record that their efforts are very well appreciated by us all. 

COVID means that there are more laws to enforce now, and while some account might have been taken of that in financial terms, the fact remains that years of successive budget cuts have left the police with challenges during COVID, just like all other public services have faced challenges as a result of COVID. And, of course, cuts to other public services impact upon the police, too. More homeless people, more work for the police. Cuts to mental health services sees more people with mental health problems having to be dealt with by the police, when many years ago they would have been able to have much easier access to the specialist support that they need. 

Now, I know that Plaid Cymru's police and crime commissioner candidates have some fantastic ideas as to what could be done in that role. And, of course, we have two police and crime commissioners who are already doing fantastic work in that role. But, of course, all of their ambitions will be limited, to some extent at least, by budgets. It's no secret that Plaid Cymru wants to see the police—in fact, the whole of the criminal justice system—devolved. It makes no sense for some of the public services to be devolved but not the police. We want to be able to treat substances as a health issue and not a criminal issue, where that's relevant, but we can't do that without responsibility over police and crime. How can we properly address adverse childhood experiences when health and education are devolved but policing and criminal justice aren't? Scotland is showing us how, with devolved police, you can take a whole-systems approach, focusing more on crime prevention, early intervention, multidisciplinary support to divert people away from the criminal justice system where that's the right thing to do—something we should be able to do, especially when the person's problem is more of a health problem than a criminal problem. 

Plaid Cymru will soon be outlining our plans ahead of the PCC elections to make police funding in Wales fairer. There is so much more that we could do to combat fear of crime, to be more visible in communities, to reduce crime and reoffending, to tackle ACEs, to support victims and tackle hate crime. But, to do this properly, the police need decent investment. The Government knows that this settlement is inadequate, and it knows that what is before us today is not enough.