Senedd told case for devolving policing to Wales has “never been stronger”
The case for devolving policing to Wales has “never been stronger,” a local MS has told the Senedd, as a UK Government review considers whether North Wales Police should be merged into a larger force that could straddle the English border.
Carrie Harper MS (Plaid Cymru, Fflint Wrecsam), who served on the North Wales police and crime panel before her election, raised the issue during questions to the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution on Tuesday.
She argued that Wales had been left behind as England reorganised its own policing.
“We are in the extraordinary position of being the only UK nation without responsibility for policing. Indeed, as has been said, many metropolitan areas in England now have greater powers over policing than Wales does, yet the services that interact most closely with policing every day—health, education, housing and social services—are already devolved,” she said.
She put a point of principle to the minister.
“As a point of principle, if powers over policing are considered appropriate for Greater Manchester, the west midlands and other English regions, then surely they are appropriate for Wales,” she said.
The Cabinet Minister, Dafydd Trystan Davies, agreed and set out the Government’s position that justice, including policing, should be fully devolved as it is in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“I can wholeheartedly agree with that. In principle, and on principle, policing should be devolved to Wales. The current reforms offer an excellent opportunity,” he said.
He told the Senedd he had already met Home Office colleagues and set out a series of meetings planned in the coming weeks. Referring to the Deputy First Minister, Sioned Williams, he set out who the Government would be speaking to.
“The Dirprwy Brif Weinidog and I will be pursuing the conversation around further devolution with the policing Minister in coming weeks, and, ahead of that, we will be in discussions with our police and crime commissioners here in Wales, with the chief constables, with representatives from local government and the policing partnership board for Wales at the end of the month. We are also arranging meetings with Lord Hogan-Howe,” he said.
Lord Hogan-Howe, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, is leading the independent review at the centre of the question facing North Wales. The review was asked to recommend “significantly fewer” forces across England and Wales, down from the current 43, and is due to report to the Home Secretary in August.
The implications for North Wales were set out the previous day, when Assistant Chief Constable Nick Evans briefed the North Wales Police and Crime Panel in Colwyn Bay.
The panel heard that the review would decide how many forces there should be and which would be grouped together, leaving three possibilities for North Wales: remaining a Welsh force, joining a cross-border force with the North West of England, or merging with the other three Welsh forces.
North Wales Police has argued against being drawn across the border. The four Welsh forces and their commissioners’ offices submitted joint evidence to the review, arguing that policing in Wales is different because it sits alongside a devolved Welsh Government, and that no force should straddle the Wales-England boundary.
Chris Bithell, a Flintshire county councillor on the panel, raised concerns that North Wales could lose its Welsh dimension if grouped with Greater Manchester and Merseyside.
Mr Evans told the panel that any move to take part of Wales outside Wales would face fundamental problems because of how policing is governed in Wales.
Back in the Senedd, the minister faced opposition pressure over whether the constitutional focus was the right priority. The Welsh Conservatives’ spokesperson, Sam Rowlands MS (Welsh Conservative Party, Fflint Wrecsam), warned against the Government spending too much energy on the wider independence agenda, though his cost concerns related to independence rather than to policing devolution specifically.
The minister rejected the suggestion that the work would distract from public services.
“I shall repeat again: our priorities are the NHS, are schools, are the economy, are child poverty and childcare,” he said.
He returned to the policing question with one of the firmer commitments of the session.
“There is a significant opportunity here to get it right. I look forward to working with Members in Government, but across this Chamber, in delivering the devolution of policing to Wales,” he said.
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