00:00I recently wrote to the Prime Minister, setting out my government's priorities for constitutional reform.
00:06Those priorities are clear. The devolution of justice and policing, devolution of rail infrastructure and funding,
00:12the devolution of the Crown Estate and greater fiscal flexibility to ensure that Welsh governments are equipped with the tools
00:19they need to deliver for the people they serve.
00:21In Wales, we have pioneered a child-first approach, an approach that recognises children in the justice system are often
00:30among those with the most complex needs,
00:32and that with the right support and early intervention, most will move away from offending.
00:37Yet the age of criminal responsibility remains 10.
00:41That sits uneasily with our commitment to children's rights, and with the recommendation of the United Nations Committee on the
00:48Rights of the Child,
00:48that the minimum age should be at least 14.
00:52We see the same disconnect with the treatment of women.
00:56There is no women's prison in Wales.
00:59Welsh women who receive custodial sentences are held across the border, away from their families,
01:04and the Welsh public service is responsible for supporting them.
01:08Short sentences can be long enough to disrupt housing, employment and family relationships,
01:13without being long enough to provide meaningful rehabilitation.
01:17And too often, this disruption can turn into a sentence which lasts far longer than the few months that a
01:25teenage girl or young mother spends in a cell far from home.
01:30A devolved system would allow us to join up policing and justice with health, housing, education and social services,
01:37where there is inevitable overlap in these areas.
01:40The devolution of rail infrastructure, alongside fair funding on rail matter too.
01:47We've seen, with the core value lines, for example, what can be done.
01:52But there remains a fundamental unfairness in the fact that around 10% of the UK rail network is located
01:59in Wales,
02:00yet we receive only 1% of rail investment.
02:05I think there is confusion about what deep devolution means, because he's looking at it from an English perspective.
02:12He is looking at it from the point of view of the mayor of Manchester.
02:16But I do not for a second think that, you know, as mayor of Manchester,
02:20he would have been happy to see a conservative prime minister insisting that he devolves power to Stockport or to
02:27Salford.
02:28But that's not what devolution is in that context.
02:33I don't doubt for a second that, as the mayor of Greater Manchester, he wanted the best for Salford and
02:39for Stockport,
02:40as I do for different parts of Wales.
02:43But it is not the same to talk about somehow devolving from London to the West Midlands or to Tyneside
02:50in the same way as devolving from Cardiff to Merthyr Tyndville.
02:54We have devolution in Wales.
02:56Our job is to make that devolution work well.
