Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Welsh Prisons

Clarity needed about the situation in Welsh prisons

We have called for greater clarity around the situation in Welsh prisons, following a Government admission that figures about the number of Covid-19 cases were wrong. In a House of Lords debate on prisons on the 23 rd April, Welsh Liberal Democrat Peer Christine Humphreys pressed the Government about the level of Covid-19 in Welsh prisons after new modelling that showed almost 25% of Covid-19 cases in the prison population were in Wales. Writing to Baroness Humphreys in a letter dated 7 th May, Lord Keen confirmed that figures were not yet available for Welsh prisons. This is due to a reporting error being identified in the data published on 27 th April meaning the 25% of Covid-19 cases in the prison population being in Welsh prisons information was incorrect. This compounds an already complex issue where, due to justice being a reserved matter and thus not devolved to Wales, the UK Ministry of Justice is responsible for sentencing and prisoner release while the Welsh Gover...