Liz Saville-Roberts: Could we discuss the need for segregated data in particular? That is a request that is supposed to come from the Welsh Government. I understand that it has been slow in coming forward, but it is none the less I would be grateful if the issue were taken up.
Liz Saville-Roberts: rose—
Liz Saville-Roberts: Moving prisoners between England and Wales creates a cost in Wales, particularly because of health, and there is an additional cost if prisoners remain there. There has never been a discussion on cross-border charging. If we take so many more prisoners into Wales, what does Wales get out of it?
Liz Saville-Roberts: I beg to move, That this House has considered prisons in Wales. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Cadeirydd—thank you very much, Mr Gray. I am pleased to have secured this debate, which is based on a report by the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. I sincerely thank colleagues at the university, the justice unions and the probation development group for their contributions. I must put on the...
Liz Saville-Roberts: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, and I take the opportunity to welcome the Minister to his place. This may well be his first debate, but I imagine we will be debating issues relating to prisons and to Wales, of course, in the future. I mentioned the in-country rate, because we know that many prisoners from England are present in Wales. I will come back to that. It is...
Liz Saville-Roberts: That is exactly why it is important that we have the data that allows us to scrutinise what is happening in Wales, which appears to be different from what is happening in England. We have higher numbers of prisoners and, as I will return to, not surprisingly, Wales operates in a social policy context that is different from that anywhere else in the United Kingdom. Health, housing and much of...
Liz Saville-Roberts: Yes, indeed. Of course, the residential women’s centre in Swansea was first mooted in 2018, but it has yet to arrive. We have concerns about the exact nature of the services: will it effectively be just another prison, or will it be equipped to make a real difference to the lives of women? Welsh women prisoners are on average 101 miles from home, which makes it difficult for them to...
Liz Saville-Roberts: That is exactly the point. We hear of people being released on Fridays; it is almost a cliché. We must ask why, if we have so many prisoners from 75 English local authorities, what is the connection between their release from a Welsh prison and the question of homelessness, let alone the homelessness of people with Welsh addresses? A number of those who had recently begun rough sleeping were...
Liz Saville-Roberts: The main driver of the ONS net migration figures is healthcare professionals. According to the Royal College of Nursing, 53% of nurses registered to practise in October had been trained internationally. The only in-patient ward at Ysbyty Tywyn Hospital has been closed since April because it cannot get staff. High visa fees are already a red tape barrier to filling vacancies. In claiming...
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2023 to Question 340 on Probation Service: Staff, how many and what proportion of probation officers have workloads that are above 100% on the Workload Management Tool in each region.
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2023 to Question 339 on Probation Service, what the staffing underspend was in the Probation Service in each of the last 24 months.
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of probation officers have been in post for over (a) two and (b) five years in each region.
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps Cabinet members appointed on 13 November 2023 have taken as part of the interests declaration and management process as of 21 November 2023.
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of probation officers who left service in the past year had been in post for less than (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four, (e) five, (f) six, (g) seven and (h) eight years.
Liz Saville-Roberts: I am sure the Prime Minister will join me and the communities I represent in sending heartfelt sympathies to the families and friends grieving at the loss of four young men in a tragic accident in Garreg Llanfrothen this week. People in north Wales pay the highest standing charges on energy bills, at £340 a year—a third more than in London—despite having lower average incomes and living...
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for which Wales has a proportionally higher prison population per 100,000 than England.
Liz Saville-Roberts: Every day since 7 October, news from Gaza and Israel becomes yet more painful to watch, even for those of us who can choose to look away. While the horrific attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas was appalling, the response by Israel’s military is devastating the lives of ordinary people in Gaza. My party has heard the testimony of several Welsh-Palestinian families who have lost relatives in...
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make a comparative assessment of the use of (a) imprisonment and (b) community-based alternatives by (i) Welsh and (ii) European courts.
Liz Saville-Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of devolving (a) probation services and (b) youth justice to Wales.
