Productive meeting with MS

15 November 2021

The Police Federation’s Welsh lead Nicky Ryan continued her discussions with politicians at a meeting with Rhys ab Owen, the Plaid Cymru spokesperson for constitution and justice.

Rhys, who is Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales Central, is a barrister and undertook work with the Welsh Government as head of policy for the Thomas Commission on Justice in Wales.

“Rhys has an in-depth knowledge of the whole criminal justice system, parts of which can be complex,” said Nicky, “One of the issues we discussed was how the police are often blamed for the lack of response or for errors from other stakeholders, and it was clear that Rhys understood the system and the processes from beginning to end.

“We also spoke about the Home Office crime recording standards and how these statistics are not a fair representation of police performance. There are many factors that affect this – such as a victim’s willingness to co-operate with an investigation, or the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) decision to discontinue – and the points to prove not being met.

“Rhys was pleased that the Police Federation has been invited to a meeting of the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group.

“The meeting is arranged for the end of November by Liz Saville-Roberts, the Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, and Rhys. Mick Antoniw, the Welsh Government’s Counsel General, will be presenting at this meeting.

“It was a really good discussion and I’m really grateful to Rhys for his time,” Nicky added.