Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP, secured a debate in the House of Commons yesterday (Tuesday 16 December) on the justice system in Wales where she urged the UK Government to devolve full responsibility for justice and policing to Wales.

The Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP raised the case of her constituent, 22-year-old Gwenno Ephraim who Ms Saville Roberts says was “failed” while in the care of the state, from her time in prison, hospital and during the times in between when she was on licence. Gwenno had experienced serious mental health problems since she was 16 and had been in and out of hospitals as a result. In 2024, Gwenno assaulted a nurse in the mental health ward of Ysbyty Gwynedd, Hergest, and was sentenced to 44 weeks in prison.

Because Wales has no prison or secure accommodation for women, Gwenno was sent over one hundred miles away to HMP Styal outside Manchester. She was held there for a period of three months but when released, despite being on suicide watch while in prison, her refusal to engage was a sufficient reason for accommodation to be withdrawn. With no fixed abode, Gwenno faced temporary stays in bed and breakfast rooms, breaches of licence conditions and short returns to HMP Styal – eight times between January and July this year.

On 7 August 2025 North Wales Police put out a missing person appeal for Gwenno, stating that she was last seen in Bangor on Monday night 28 July. CCTV footage appears to show her walking alone between 10.20 pm and 11.10 pm, by which time it is understood that she had reached the Menai Suspension Bridge, but she has not been seen since.

Ms Saville Roberts drew on the research of Dr Rob Jones and the Wales Governance Centre of Cardiff University and their recent report on prisons and imprisonment in Wales, which she says allows us to “understand the cracks” in our criminal justice system. The Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP also said that Gwenno’s story shows what happens when real families “fall between the gaps” as a result. During her speech, Liz Saville Roberts said that only through full devolution of the criminal justice system we can start to fix structural problems and be able to address systematic issues hindering both effective rehabilitation and the safety and welfare of victims, survivors, and their families.

Her call is supported by the findings of three independent commissions, including the Thomas Commission and the Commission on the Constitutional Future for Wales, all of which have recommended the devolution of justice to various degrees.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Alex Davies Jones, who is also the MP for Pontypridd expressed that her thoughts were with Gwenno’s family. Responding to Liz Saville Roberts MP, she said that Gwenno is a “prime example of exactly how the criminal justice system is not working”. Ms Davies Jones said that this case was “exactly why we need to close the gaps and ensure that women like Gwenno are given the support that they need, rather than necessarily a prison sentence”. However, while she acknowledged that interfaces exist between reserved and devolved responsibilities, she said that “it is not necessarily true that they cause problems in the delivery of justice in Wales”.

Speaking after the debate, Ms Saville Roberts MP said: “Tragic cases such as Gwenno Ephraim’s make it painfully clear that the current system is failing people. It is failing victims, it is failing vulnerable individuals, and it is failing families who are left with the pain. I would like to thank Karen Ephraim, Gwenno’s mother, for her courage. I know how raw and painful this remains for her and her family, and I am deeply grateful for her strength in permitting me to speak so openly about her daughter’s case.

“In Wales, offenders and ex-offenders are being let down by a justice system that was not designed with them in mind. Too often, individuals are passed from mental health wards to prisons and back again, without receiving the care, continuity or support they desperately need. With different powers divided between different governments, joined-up solutions are impossible to deliver.

“While I am glad that Alex Davies Jones MP acknowledged that the criminal justice system is not working, and her willingness to meet with Gwenno’s family, it is deeply frustrating that she failed to recognise how the uneven distribution of powers over the wider justice system between the Welsh and UK Governments is exacerbating many of these problems.

“Plaid Cymru has long called for the devolution of justice because it is the only way we can properly tailor the system to Wales’ specific needs and address these structural problems. This is not a political ask, it is a constitutional requirement to improve experiences and outcomes in Wales. UK Labour must listen not just to Plaid Cymru, but to people in Wales who have been deeply affected by such failures, to improve people’s lives rather than hold on to power for the sake of it.”

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