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Welsh Conservatives hail the UK Government’s new ‘Beating Crime Plan’

28 Jul 2021 2 minute read
Left, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies. Picture by Senedd Cymru. Right, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Picture by Annika Haas (CC BY 2.0).

Welsh Conservatives have welcomed the new ‘Beating Crime Plan’ unveiled by Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday, describing it as “the most comprehensive and far-reaching strategy of its kind yet.”

The plan will permanently remove conditions on the use of section 60 stop-and-search powers for police to tackle knife crime and expand the use of electronic monitoring for offenders upon release from prison.

The use of alcohol tags, which detect alcohol in the sweat of offenders, will be introduced as part of a pilot scheme in Wales and Mr Johnson also announced plans to make offenders doing community service wear hi-vis clothing.

“Since the Prime Minister entered 10 Downing Street in 2019, he’s set about providing our law enforcement with everything they need to prevent, deter, and crack down on crime. “Welsh Conservative Senedd leader, Andrew RT Davies said”

‘Tougher sentences’

“Two years on, we have more police, more resources and tougher sentences but if we are to truly deliver on levelling up this country, we must give people the security and confidence that comes from having a safe street and a safe home.

“This new plan will give the law-abiding majority the respect and support they need should they fall victim to a crime, whilst cracking down on those who persist in breaking the law.

“By combining prevention, deterrence, and enforcement, it will put victims first and support the dedicated and hardworking men and women from across our criminal justice system who keep us safe in Wales.

Police chiefs and the Police federation, which represents rank and file officers, have complained of a lack of consultation from the government over the new proposal and the federation described the plan as “ill thought out” and containing “gimmicks”.

Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association also criticised the plan’s focus on the use of stop and search measures to combat knife crime. “There is no evidence for the PM’s claims about the effectiveness of stop-and-search,” he said. “But there is a lot of evidence it is discriminatory, unfair and does not prevent the long-term scourge of violent crime.”


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Chris
Chris
2 years ago

Welsh Conservatives hail their UK Conservative masters. Well that’s a surprise.
I often wonder though if we could not combat a lot of crime (fraud anyway) by investigating the Westminster party

Erisian
Erisian
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris

Don’t be silly – they are above the law (apparently).

Cymro newydd
Cymro newydd
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris

What on earth is a Welsh Conservative, other than an oxymoron or a traitor to Wales?

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
2 years ago

The Tories are very good at using law and order policy- believing it a vote winner- but will they fund the forces to implement it and wouldn’t the money be better spent in actually levelling up a community so inequality does not cause crime in the first place ?

Owain Morgan
Owain Morgan
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Duggan

They are going to ‘level up’ communities, in England 🙄 There’s a clear message to working class constituencies. Vote Tory and you get rewarded. Don’t vote Tory and you suffer. So much for the Barnet formula 😒

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago

The Police Fed hate it, ACOP think it is “weird and gimmicky” and neither Patel nor Johnson bothered to ask anyone in policing and justice before launching it.

Of course Andrew RT thinks it is wonderful. Man is an idiot.

Owain Morgan
Owain Morgan
2 years ago

They’re referring to the one that senior police officers in England and Wales have already described as a mess. So, Welsh Tories claim a mess is a good thing. Sounds about right 😂😂🤣🤣

Mark
Mark
2 years ago

More smoke and mirrors from the tories presenting old and failed ideas as new and more brown nosing from RT, why do they think the old stop and search law will work this time, the only thing it’s ever achieved is bad feeling between the people and the police. Have they re-employed the 20,000 police that the tories got rid of?

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Interesting sub-text to those “20,000 new officers in three years”. Firstly the Met is so desperate to recruit anyone breathing they are having appalling difficulties at Peel Centre, Hendon.
Secondly the natural wastage among police officers is 6,800 a year so they need to recruit 20,400 just to stay still.

Phil Davies
Phil Davies
2 years ago

Not a lot of point in having tougher sentences. Make the felons serve the full sentence they’ve been given. At the moment they serve only 50%.

Tim
Tim
2 years ago
Reply to  Phil Davies

There is a very good reason for remission(to not make a prisoner serve the full sentence ) – it is a method of bribing prisoners to behave better – if you doubt it, ask a prison officer!

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
2 years ago

Announcing things is easy, lets see if anything changes. Where I live in London we don’t see any police from one week to the next unless it is to stop and search a young black man, then we get ten officers standing around watching as one or two do the search in view of everyone, must be so humilatimg for the young man. If we report anything to the police we don’t hear anything back from them.

Sian
Sian
2 years ago

It’s time that policing was devolved.

Charles Coombes
Charles Coombes
2 years ago

In regards to crime and imprisonment the government needs to look to the Netherlands as a country where prisons are rather empty.ans some converted to housing.

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