ISHERWOOD: Securing a safer Wales

Addressing the annual Welsh Conservative Party Conference in Llangollen, Shadow Social Justice Minister, Mark Isherwood AM, said:

The delivery of a safer Wales requires prevention, protection, punishment and rehabilitation.

Criminal Justice cannot therefore be achieved in the absence of Social Justice.

We know that the majority of young offenders come from broken homes;

Nearly two thirds have drug and alcohol addiction problems;

More than three in four have no educational qualifications;

And many young prisoners have mental health problems rooted in drug abuse.

In any UK prison you will meet offenders who can’t read, teenagers addicted to drugs, people who’ve never worked a day in their whole lives.

So what have 17 years’ of Labour Welsh Government – periodically propped up by their Separatist friends or the Lib Dems – done for Social Justice in Wales?

• Almost one child in three lives in poverty, the highest proportion amongst the UK Nations;
• Wales has the highest working age unemployment rate in Britain and comes bottom in the UK economic prosperity league table;
• Support for families going through breakdown is being cut;
• A significantly higher proportion of children are being taken into care than in England;
• Fewer than 30% of free school meals pupils achieve the key stage 4 core subject indicator incorporating GCSEs;
• 90,000 households are trapped on housing waiting list, in the only UK nation to see house building going backwards;
• And cuts in Homelessness action and voluntary sector funding will devastate support for more user-led, preventative and cost effective-services.

To cap it all, the measure of poverty used by Labour makes a bad economy look good for poverty – and vice versa.

Welsh Conservatives will replace this failed social experiment with life chances.

We will drive regeneration centered on strong community-based organisations – tackling poverty, giving voice to local people, building stronger communities for the future.

We will build on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations and the support of local institutions.

We recognise that the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners marked an act of real devolution, empowering local communities to have their say on policing priorities and to hold an elected representative to account.

We also recognise that Labour’s call for the devolution of policing, backed by the Separatists and Lib Dems, would deliver the opposite.

As Gwent’s former Deputy Chief Constable said “whilst I could see there might be some strategic benefits from the devolution of police, there are also serious operational risks … the list of potential benefits for me are a relatively short one”.

And as my contacts in North Wales Police told me, they have a closer affiliation with North West England than the rest of Wales – and there is a lack of competence in Welsh Government to handle the devolution of Policing.