26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gydag academyddion seneddol
I've been a Member of the Senedd for 16 years, Professor, and of course the work of committees ebbs and flows, but the membership of those committees, and the stability of the membership of committees, isn't going to be affected at all by this Bill in front…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gydag academyddion seneddol
Thank you very much, Chair. Can I ask you, professor, what your views are on whether we actually need more Members of the Senedd?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Okay.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Does the Senedd Commission have a view on whether the competence lies with the Senedd or elsewhere?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
And you are right, it says they must be from different political groups, which is very important. Can I just test this issue of the name of—the English titles, if you like, on the face of the Bill? So, we've got used to Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
In the executive.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
So, it would have to be across three parties, was it?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Please do.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
So, obviously, the Bill makes a proposal for the possibility of two Deputy Presiding Officers, and one thing it doesn't stipulate is, if there are to be three individuals, acting as Llywydd and two deputies, whether each of those should be from completely…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
The Deputy Presiding Officer role, Deputy Presiding Officer.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Is it okay to move on to something slightly different?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
It could. On vacancies, there's a clear situation about vacancies at the moment: if it's a closed list, it goes to whoever's next on the list, if this is a party position. If it's not a party position, if the individual either leaves a party or was elected as…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Yes. And of course it's worth us considering the fact that the next Senedd elections would be undertaken at a time when automatic voter registration is taking place as well, and that, because of its first implementation, could also throw up challenges…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
So, we'll need to make some consequential amendments to other pieces of legislation, potentially.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Thank you.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
And I think we all have accepted that, obviously, some of the ministerial briefs are extremely wide, the portfolios are extremely wide. Some of the subject responsibilities of committees are very broad and wide as well. But, of course, if there were to be…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Obviously, I appreciate the Business Committee has discussed some of these matters as well—which I and other people around this table also attend. There is a proposal, of course, to increase the number of Ministers from 12 to 17, possibly up to 19, by a…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
There's no proposed increase in the number of Senedd Commissioners. You obviously chair the Senedd Commission. Do you think that that is a problem? Do think that we need more Commissioners, or do you think, actually, it could function, with 96 Members, with…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Do you think 96 Members is the right number of Members for the Senedd and what complications might that throw up for the working arrangements in the Senedd Commission?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Just to put it into context, the costs laid out in 2017, which were for a 90-Member Senedd—the upper-scale costs—in today's money, according to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, would be about £4.2 million. So, it's significantly different than the…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
No? They were just accepted.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
At the time. And there was no challenge from the Welsh Government about the assumptions that had been made on those capital costs in particular.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Yes. I'm just trying to understand why they're so wildly different, and why even those figures are still less than those that were in the report in 2017. So, the figures I've got in front in me from the 2017 report have the costs of the alteration of the…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
I do just want to test this area of costs a bit, because, looking back at the expert panel's recommendations back in 2017, the costs even then—the capital costs—were higher than the capital costs the Commission has put forward now. Obviously, now's costs you…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
I'm grateful.
