Policing issues raised at Plaid Cymru conference

28 March 2022

The issues affecting police officers across Wales were discussed with Welsh politicians during Friday’s Plaid Cymru conference at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

The Federation’s Welsh lead Nicky Ryan attended the conference with Calum Macleod, a Welsh regional representative on the Police Federation of England and Wales National Board and head of criminal claims, and had arranged a meeting with leading politicians.

“We were able to brief the politicians on a number of areas including the Federation’s current campaign for better pay and a fairer pay review process and its Time Limits campaign which calls for an end to long-drawn-out police conduct investigations,” says Nicky.

“But we were also able to put the spotlight on issues that are very specific to Wales due to the way in which devolution has an impact on officers. For example, the Police Covenant, which will soon enshrine police officer wellbeing in law in England, will not necessarily apply to officers in Wales and therefore there is an opportunity for the Senedd to act now and ensure that the officers serving its communities are also subject to the provisions of the covenant – or perhaps the Senedd could go even further.

“We felt those we spoke to were sympathetic to the issues raised and that they had an appetite to understand policing and support officers where they can.”

Nicky and Calum met with Liz Saville-Roberts (leader of Plaid at Westminster and MP for Dwyfor Merionnydd), Rhys Ab Owen (Plaid representative for social justice and the constitution), Ioan Bellin from Rhy’ office at the Senedd and Hywel Williams (MP for Arfon).

Nicky Ryan with Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru, at the conference. They are planning a further meeting.

Dafydd Llywelyn, Police and Crime Commissioner for Dyfed Powys, was also in the same meeting and Nicky and Calum thanked him for ensuring student officers in the Force were given protected learning time to enable them to complete their university studies while also undertaking on the job training, but said more still needed to be done in all forces as many new recruits were struggling with the workloads involved.

Mr Llywelyn said how language used both in person and social media was important in supporting the police and Nicky stressed that police officers needed politicians to show they appreciated the police service and the challenges it faced.

“I think this would make a difference to officers and is an area where members of the Senedd could really make a difference,” says Nicky.