The only way we’ll get a proper justice system for Wales is if we control it ourselves

THIS week Liz Saville Roberts, my Plaid Cymru colleague for Dwyfor Meirionnydd has a debate on the devolution of justice. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if you stopped reading here. Devolution is so normal and hardly causes any waves. Is it really that interesting?

Well, hang on! Justice sticks out like a sore thumb as one of Westminster’s biggest devolution failures.

First a really short bit of history. When devolution came in everything was devolved to Scotland – all except some things that we held back in London, like defence and security. For Wales, it was the other way around. Nothing was devolved unless it was singled out. And despite all the other bits of devolution, London hung on to justice in Wales.

(By the way, when we eventually got something like Scotland’s deal, Whitehall ministers were asked, What more will you devolve? One said, We’ll hang on to water – they can have sewage. Eventually they saw how really bad this looked and we got both!)

Anyway, in spite of every reasonable argument they hung on to justice. So, our Senedd now passes laws, but it does not control the justice system and the courts and prisons. Nor the police, though it does provide about half of the money spent on policing. So, our Senedd is a ‘legislature without its own jurisdiction’ – the only one I know of in the world.

But a lot of the public services which make the justice system work are the responsibility of our government. So even if our public policy changes because of the decisions of our democratically elected government, this need not follow through to justice.

So, the health service, education, housing, social services, the economy and employment might all improve in one direction. Justice need not change. And these are just the sort of services we need to get right - to make sure that as few people as possible break the law. And if they do offend, these services are crucial to getting them back on the straight and narrow. So, there is a huge hole in the middle of our justice system. And this might be one of the reasons why the system in Wales is very clearly worse than it is anywhere else in Britain.

I will be speaking in the debate. Years ago, I tried to get the jury system to fit in with how things really are with the Welsh language. When a jury is chosen all its members have to understand English. The Juries Act is clear. Juries should understand the evidence as directly as possible. If they don’t understand English, the judge will bar them from duty. There is language qualification.

But there is no such qualification for Welsh. Evidence given in English must be understood as directly as possible. Welsh evidence may not. So, a wrongdoer might get off or an innocent person might be found guilty, not on the evidence, but because of how that evidence was heard.

My Private Member’s Bill would have allowed for full juries who understood both Welsh and English. This I think is right both for equality, and crucially so that cases can be heard properly. For example, cases where young children are giving evidence in Welsh.

Back then, the government (Labour) refused the change. The same happened when I raised it with the Conservative government some years later.

It seems to me that we will only get a proper justice system – which reflects real conditions in our country, when we control that system ourselves – like every other country in the world which has its own body of law.