Though we'll be voting in favour of both these legislative consent motions on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, we're aware of the sensitivities involved. In so doing, we acknowledge the statement in the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee's memorandum No. 2 report on this Bill that the Welsh Government has said that it is now satisfied that the Bill provides appropriate protection and safeguards in terms of the interaction with devolved Welsh authorities and other devolved issues. We also acknowledge the statement in the committee's memorandum No. 3 and 4 report on this Bill that the committee did not agree with the Welsh Government that the Senedd's consent was required for a number of identified clauses because, in their view, they fall outside the devolved purpose test set out in Standing Orders. 

In their briefing for this Bill, the Equality and Human Rights Commission supports the UK Government's commitment to tackle serious crime and promote a fair justice system, and are pleased to see measures in the Bill aimed at reducing the increased use of custodial remand for children as well as measures to promote open justice and provide for the presence of a sign language interpreter during jury deliberations. However, they identified four areas of concern regarding equality and human rights: live links in criminal proceedings; protest and public order; unauthorised encampments; and extraction of digital information from mobile devices.

The North Wales Regional Equality Network has raised concern that this legislation will discriminate against Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, protected by the Equality Act 2010, whilst also urging the Welsh Government to ensure that local authorities meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient residential sites, quality transit sites and stopping places, or to impose penalties on local authorities where statutory duties are not met. Similarly, constituents have written stating that this proposed legislation will lead to our Gypsy and Traveller communities being criminalised on the one hand whilst being doubly penalised because Welsh local authorities have not yet met the requirements of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and built enough sites and provided a network of transit sites and stopping places. The onus is therefore on the Welsh Government to address this. 

Unlike this Welsh Parliament, our Senedd, the UK Houses of Parliament have robust multilayered bicameral scrutiny processes, as evidenced by last night's series of votes in the House of Lords against measures in the Bill, which included measures that won't be sent back to the Commons and a vote in favour of an amendment led by Conservative peer Baroness Newlove, referred to by the Minister—the Baroness being the former Victims Commissioner for England and Wales—to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales. We must therefore trust our colleagues in the UK Parliament to do their job, just as we expect to be trusted to do ours.