In a speech a Cardiff University to Libertarian activists, students and the media, the LPC “Taster” Justice policy is revealed

Good afternoon, and thank you so much for coming today.

We are calling this event a “Taster” because we hope that it will wet the appetites of all of you here and of everybody listening and leave you excited for more.

But even if you don't like the taste of the morsel we present to you today remember devolution is about choice. And we won't be the only option on the menu, if we do succeed in devolving justice powers then we won't just have Libertarian Justice policies on the table, but Conservative, Labour and Plaid too - and while I might be a little biased. I’m sure ours will be the best.

Ultimately at the end of the day it will be up to voters to choose the justice policy that they prefer. Because justice devolution will bring powers closer to you and give you more control over the most important area of government policy.

And I say most important not just because justice powers are wide ranging or serious - holding the power over freedom or incarceration over our citizens.

But because every other area of policy at some point intersects with the courts, be it agriculture with farm debt mediation and settlement, business filing suite, or social services taking a child away for their welfare.

This all happens in our courts according to our laws, and here we have one major issue with the current system. Devolved areas already interact with reserved justice powers.

The effect has been dreadful, rehabilitation and child welfare suffers worse than statistically similar areas of England. We need powers to be devolved not just so we can act. But so that we can be accountable.

Now we are English ministers responsible for some inputs like family courts, and we have Welsh ministers responsible for councils and child welfare - but nobody is responsible. This must change.

We need local and national policy to work together and not be driven by separate political motives. We need a single policy that is joined up and accountable for its failure.

While the tories in England cut justice, under Cameron & Clegg and then cut rehabilitation spending again in the last budget we understand that justice is a policy area where a small investment can pay off in the long run with lower crime affecting our communities and lower costs for society to pay for courts and prisons to handle a revolving door of reoffending.

Wales has its own contexts, our history, language, culture, geography and economic conditional all demand different solutions from England. I believe that we’re two reasonable people to design justice systems for England and for Wales they would come up with different ones.

We need to respond differently, it should be for a Welsh government to decide if we should see bilingual juries, it should be for a Welsh government to provide.

And this is important not just in our attempt to provide for true equality for English and Welsh. But language is so important, to how we articulate and understand ideas, emotions and genuine expression. To me it is wrong to deprive someone who wishes to testify in a Welsh or have a parole hearing in Welsh of a jury or a parole board that will listen to them and understand without having to have a filter or a translator.

And so for all of these reasons to bring accountability and clear governing structures to justice policy, to deal with our epidemic of child welfare, to treat the welsh language as truly equal and to reform our prisons radically to prevent reoffending I urge to to be open to justice devolution and to vote Libertarian this election to ensure that we will in future be able to make the promise of this document a reality.