Plaid eyes justice devolution
By politics.co.uk staff
Wales’ evolving legal system is fuelling calls for the devolution of justice responsibilities, according to Plaid Cymru.
The nationalist party, currently in coalition in Cardiff with Labour, argues in its ‘Developing a Welsh jurisdiction’ policy paper that Wales should soon take full responsibility for the administration of justice.
“Given that the court of appeal regularly sits in Wales, and that we do have our own administrative court, surely the time is now right for a distinctly welsh system of administration of justice?” the party’s Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd asked.
“Especially as Welsh laws have now been created for the last ten years and there is now a distinct all-Wales legal circuit as well.”
Plaid argues the use of “so-called experts” who did not understand Welsh issues – like the need for understanding bilingual education or Welsh-medium education – had affected cases in the family courts.
“The comments, made by an expert practicing primarily in England, of course had no basis in published research, and should not have been aired let alone accepted,” Plaid’s policy director Nerys Evans said.
