Rosemary Butler, the AM for Newport West has been pressing First Minister Rhodri Morgan to hold talks with the Westminster Government about who runs the police in Wales.

At Assembly Question Time this week she referred to fact that the Home Secretary John Reid was now talking about splitting the Home Office into two separate departments, one for justice and one for security and policing.

"Police authorities in Wales are now broadly in favour of devolving police powers to Wales so would you not agree with me that this is an opportune time to have ongoing discussions with Westminster about the devolution of these powers?" she asked.

The First Minister replied that sometimes when there were major reorganisations in Whitehall it presented opportunities to devolve further powers, but not always. There were no cabinet commitments as yet, to accept John Reid's proposals, so the Welsh Assembly Government would have wait and see whether they were accepted.

Tuesday, February 6