Speeches by Hoare.

“That is a long one-word answer, but not too bad.”

“I want to turn to intergovernmental relations. In all these inquiries, we try to identify something good and then try to identify things where we can nudge for a bit of improvement. Could you both give one example of where the UK and Welsh Governments work particularly well together and identify one thing that is okay …”

“And one thing that could be improved?”

“Mr Jones, do you have an observation on that?”

“So it is people-dependent rather than remit-set?”

“Setting aside deaths—I am just trying to get a picture of Wales versus England in the rest of the prison estate—could one of you say a word on the data on prisoner-on-prisoner attacks, whether that is ABH or GBH? Is there anything particularly distinctive, noteworthy or worrying in the Welsh data on that?”

“I am conscious of time, so we are going to do a quickfire round with one-word answers only—otherwise, hellfire comes coursing down. This is to each and every one of you. Is the MOJ policy sufficiently tailored to the needs of Welsh service users? That is a simple yes or no.”

“You are allowed to say yes or no in Welsh or English, and I will understand it, so fire away.”

“Ms Russell?”

“Would you support devolving probation and youth justice to the Welsh Government—yes or no?”

“So do you point us in the direction of recommending some sort of enhanced training, or a refresh, for magistrates to understand precisely what they have got in the arsenal?”

“Is there a differential between England and Wales on this matter?”

“Such leniency, Chair!”

“Thank you. Mr Hall, in your evidence, you described the youth and women’s justice blueprints as being improvements. How have they improved things, and how can their success be replicated for other aspects of the criminal justice system in Wales?”

“It is the question, because I have just asked it. Your job is to answer the questions; my job is to ask them.”

“So it doesn’t really matter as long as the outcomes are good. Fine.”

“Although I remain convinced that there are ways of delivering the guardrails that the Treasury needs without the OBR, I know that the Chief Secretary and the Chancellor are not persuaded of that argument. However, might the Chief Secretary be persuaded that the resignation of the chair of the OBR and the recruitment pr…”

“Would you describe as effective or ineffective the relationship between the UK and the Welsh Government when it comes to supporting offender management, both in the community and in custody? Let’s go from the other end of the panel this time. We’ll do it in reverse, just to fox you all.”

“Diolch yn fawr.”

“So again, we come back to the issue of inadequacy of data that can help to shape policy output.”