Racial Discrimination within the Justice System

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 2:55 pm on 5 October 2022.

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Photo of Delyth Jewell Delyth Jewell Plaid Cymru 2:55, 5 October 2022

(Translated)

Thank you for that, Minister. Recent data from the Wales Governance Centre paints an extremely worrying picture of racism within the justice system. As this information was not publicly available, they gathered it through freedom of information requests. They found that black and mixed race people are more than four times more likely to be arrested than white people, which is twice as likely as the corresponding figure in England. I’m aware, as you’ve said, that the Government is in the process of developing its 'Anti-racist Wales Action Plan', and the Government, I know, is committed to tackling systemic racism. I’d like to ask you: do you believe there is a need to collect and publish data on this subject in a systematic way in order to ensure that we understand the scale of the problem? Also, what steps can the Government take to reduce the problem? Finally, do you believe that it would be easier to deal with the problem if the justice system and policing were devolved?