On 13 September 2023, the Legal Services Board hosted a stakeholder event at the Senedd in Cardiff – Reshaping Legal Services in Wales. The event was sponsored by Peredur Owen Griffith MS. His speech is below. Check against delivery.
Speech by Peredur Owen Griffiths
Thanks for the opportunity to sponsor this important event today and have the chance to say a few words.
I was particularly interested to hear about the LSB’s regulatory work and ambition for the sector. And about the work of law centres to support the most vulnerable in our society.
I was particularly interested to hear about the strategy’s aim of delivering fairer outcomes.
The plan sets out to achieve this by lowering unmet legal need across large parts of society, achieving fairer outcomes for people experiencing greater disadvantage and dismantling barriers to a diverse and inclusive profession at all levels.
I wholeheartedly support such aims. There is a perception that there is a correlation between the justice you receive and your background or means.
There is also a perception that a career in law is off limits if you come from certain communities.
Anything that brings down the barriers that exist for people based on class, wealth, skin colour, sexual orientation or anything else, is to be welcomed.
For me and my party, the biggest transformational change that could happen in the legal sector would be if the criminal justice system was to be devolved to Wales.
It’s been nearly four years since the Commission on Justice in Wales – led by the esteemed former lord chief justice Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd – delivered a comprehensive report calling for the establishment of a new justice department of the Welsh Government led by a cabinet minister.
It also called for a Welsh High Court and Court of Appeal, and a criminal legal aid system run on ’Nordic’ public defender lines among its 78 recommendations for reform.
We may be nearly four years on from the publication of this respected report, but we are no further down the track when it comes to untangling what has been described by Rob James of the Wales Governance Centre as ‘the jagged edge’ legal system that has been imposed upon us and developed over time.
I do not envisage that anything will change before the end of the current Government – they do seem somewhat preoccupied with internal difficulties at the moment.
I only hope that the next UK Government – if it is to be a Labour one – delivers significantly more on what has already promised for Wales by them under the Gordon Brown proposals which is the devolution of youth justice and the probation service.
Diolch.
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