Despite comprehensive anti-racism policies, growing racial inequality in Welsh policing, particularly in stop and search, exposes a profound lack of independent accountability.
One legacy of the Black Lives Matter Movement in Wales has been the introduction of a cohesive anti-racist policy approach by the Welsh devolved administration. This includes the Criminal Justice Anti-Racism Action Plan for Wales, the Anti Racism Wales Action Plan (ARWAP), and the Cardiff City Race Equality Task Force plan. Five years after George Floyd’s death, racial inequality is continuing to grow in policing across Wales. Lowered racial inequality within frontline policing was at the heart of policy initiatives in 2022 (as the above plans show), but there’s one area that stubbornly remains a thorn in the side of Welsh forces: stop and search. While the Welsh Government has instituted comprehensive anti-racism policies, their implementation is undermined by a profound lack of independent accountability, a failure most acutely exposed by persistent and growing racial disparities in police stop and search rates.
Stop and search has its roots in “Sus Law,” a shortened term of “suspected person” which enabled a police officer to stop, search, and arrest anyone that they suspected of having an “intent to commit an arrestable offence.” The 1782 Vagrancy Act was widely used to target Black people and other ethnic minorities, and played a key role in the race riots of the 1980s in cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and London.
While the Welsh Government has instituted comprehensive anti-racism policies, their implementation is undermined by a profound lack of independent accountability […]
The law was later repealed, with most stop and searches happening under the 1984 Police Crime and Evidence (PACE) Act. Each year, forces collect their data before sending it to the Home Office, where it is collated and distributed. PACE requires officers to collect the ethnicity of those subject to stop and search, while the Equality Act 2010 places a due regard to eliminate unlawful discrimination. This is known as the public sector equality duty. Within the Anti Racism Wales document, the government noted that there was a “clear belief” that many public bodies were not meeting the public sector equality duty.
A core component of the anti racism initiatives introduced by the Welsh Government has been a reduction in racial inequality within frontline policing. The criminal justice system isn’t devolved to Wales, leading to what Robert Jones and Richard Wyn Jones coined as “the jagged edge” in their book “The Welsh Criminal Justice System.” This refers to how devolved areas interact with non-devolved areas, such as how the criminal justice system interacts with social services, or youth services. This jagged edge makes robust, cross-institutional accountability almost impossible, a systemic failure evidenced by the stop and search data from two of Wales’s largest forces.
During 2022-2023, the rate of stop and search by Dyfed Powys Police in Wales showed a significant disparity: Black people were stopped at a rate of 34.2/1,000 people, while the rate for White people was substantially lower, at 14.7/1,000 people. According to the 2021 census, there are 1,300 Black residents in Dyfed Powys, making up 0.2% of the population. In South Wales, Black people were searched at a rate of 32.8/1000 compared to 4.7/1000 for White people. For perspective, even the Metropolitan Police in London, which faces constant scrutiny, reports a stop and search rate for Black British people of 16 per 1,000 people. This disparity raises a critical question: why is the rate in Dyfed Powys, a rural force with a tiny Black population (0.2% overall) higher than in the UK’s capital?
Syniadau uchelgeisiol, awdurdodol a mentrus.
Ymunwch â ni i gyfrannu at wneud Cymru gwell.
In a policy document called “Implementing the Race Equality Action Plan” from the Wales Centre for Public Policy, previous approaches by the Welsh Government on racial inequality have been too numerous, brittle, free-floating and toothless, and this criticism could also be applied to the ARWAP. For example, take the evaluation and monitoring of the LGBTQIA Action Plan compared to the race equality action plan: the Welsh Government has made available a tender worth £160,000 for an independent external evaluation of the LGBTQIA Action Plan. This contrast strongly suggests a discrepancy in the Welsh Government’s commitment to independent evaluation based on the policy area, undermining the credibility of ARWAP’s internal monitoring compared to the LGBTQIA Action Plan’s external review.
A lack of accountability makes challenging racial inequality in the Welsh criminal justice system exceptionally difficult. Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic people are more likely to be incarcerated in the British prison system than English non-white people. Notably, ARWAP makes reference to George Floyd, but fails to mention historic moments such as the 1919 race riots, or the names of younger men who have died in or following police custody, notably, Mohamud Mohammad Hassan and Mouayed Bashir. This suggests performative policy, rather than genuine engagement with local family-led campaigns who have sought justice and accountability.
It is unclear who can hold the Welsh Government to account for the emerging failures of ARWAP.
It is unclear who can hold the Welsh Government to account for the emerging failures of ARWAP. Most likely, ongoing racism in the frontline delivery of Welsh policing will be blamed on organisations or structures beyond the control of the Government. An external evaluation of the ARWAP might find the plan is already failing, but it’s worth interrogating if a government that has overseen such a rise in racial inequality can genuinely use its own mechanisms to eliminate it. Without genuine, independent oversight, the ARWAP risks being relegated to another “brittle and toothless policy,” confirming that the legacy of anti-racism from the Welsh Government remains another unkept promise while racial inequality persists in frontline policing.
We contacted the South Wales South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office in September 2025 for comment. At the time of writing in October, our request for comment had been noted, but the office failed to provide a response to our question: “What happens if racial inequality in policing goes up, and does this mean that the plan to be anti-racist is currently failing because of rising ethnic and racial disparity within stop and search statistics?”
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