Welsh Conservative Shadow Communities Secretary, Mark Isherwood AM, has condemned the First Minister’s dismissive response after he challenged him in the Assembly Chamber yesterday on his Government’s failure to fill the police training cash gap.
Mr Isherwood is concerned that Welsh Government policy is denying Police Forces in Wales access to funding for apprenticeships.
He first raised the matter in the Assembly Chamber in March this year and was disappointed then by the partisan response he received from the Leader of the House Jane Hutt AM.
On raising the issue this week with the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, he received the same dismissive response.
Speaking in the Chamber, Mr Isherwood said:
“When, earlier this year, I raised in the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee concern expressed by the four Welsh police forces that they couldn’t access the apprenticeship levy and the £2 million that they were paying into it, the Skills Minister replied that the Welsh Government would instead strike up a grant or contract arrangements, in dialogue with the College of Policing, and that they had meetings in the diary with the Police and Crime Commissioners. I was then told subsequently, in March, that those meetings had, at that stage, been cancelled and not rescheduled.
“How do you respond to the concern then expressed in August by the four police and crime commissioners and chief constables in Wales that this could result in 45 fewer officers in North Wales and potential recruits choosing to sign up to work for English forces instead, and calling for urgent action from the Welsh Government because the situation is putting them at a distinct disadvantage, and finally pointing out that although in England the money that forces pay into the levy goes to the English police college, in Wales it goes to the Welsh Government and, therefore, this lies in your hands?”
The First Minister replied: “Well, we could’ve done this if policing was devolved, but his party has sat there consistently in this Chamber and demanded that policing should not be devolved. We are not going to fund services that should be funded by a non-devolved body. This is a tax that was imposed by his party: a tax on business. We have received a share of that and we will use that money to pay for apprenticeships, but we cannot, in good faith, pay towards apprenticeship schemes that sit in non-devolved areas. That, surely, is the responsibility of the UK Government, as they keep on telling us.”
Mr Isherwood added: “His response on such an important matter was utterly disgraceful and totally irresponsible - as ever, putting party political point scoring before the well-being of people in Wales. This has nothing to do with the separate issue of policing not being devolved. To have dismissed the needs of our Welsh police forces and the need for community safety so casually further questions his fitness to hold high office.”