, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I'm grateful for that. I just wanted to ask one broader question related to human rights. The Bill, for example, modernises law around having undue influence on the electoral process, which takes us to the broader context in terms of online harassment and so…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Section 3 of the Bill requires each electoral registration officer in Wales to add eligible electors to the local government register in Wales where the registration officer is satisfied that that person is entitled to register. Do you consider that these…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
In looking particularly at article 10, do you have any concerns about the possibility that the provisions relating to the limit on controlled expenditure by a third party in section 36 would be in breach of article 10?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Thank you, Chair. I'd like to turn to issues around human rights. The explanatory memorandum accompanying the Bill doesn't discuss human rights. To what extent have you taken human rights into account in preparing the Bill?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Okay. Thank you.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
So, it's still an option for you to use that other method of achieving the same thing.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
One of the changes from the White Paper to the draft Bill in front of us is the suggestion that returning officers should be subject to the Welsh language standards, and, from the Welsh Language Commissioner's point of view, that's been omitted now. Can you…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
You are also part of the discussions or the partnership that is going to deliver a new contemporary art gallery for Wales, on top of everything that you are doing already. There's an exciting vision to create a contemporary art gallery, so where is the…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
In terms of protecting the collection and the wider picture, you've touched on that already, but are there risks to the security of the collection due to the capital pressures that you are facing currently in terms of maintenance of buildings, and what are…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
That's great news to share with the committee, then. Congratulations to those who were responsible for that. Reference has been made in the media and in the press recently to missing items, due to the interest following the revelation of the situation in the…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
So, there's no kind of deficit. You have achieved that already, eight years ahead of time.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Okay. Thank you. You made an additional payment of £750,000 to the pension fund during the 2021-22 financial year, and you say that you're going to clear that deficit fully over the next eight years. It's around £57 million, £58 million, something like that…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Yes. Just to lead on from those comments, you said—. This is a question to the chair. You said recently to the culture committee that you'll have to cut things accordingly. How are you going to do that over the next few years and do so in a way that still…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Yes. Well, I think it would be useful.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Did they say that it was probable?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Did they find in any of them that there was a probability of succeeding, in any of them?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Okay—
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Did the legal advice advise you that, probably, the case would succeed?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Okay. Can I just—?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
In putting what you have put into the public domain, that the legal advice suggested that it was probable that you would be facing a greater cost if you followed the tribunal route, there is only one conclusion that anyone reasonably can draw from that: that…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Following the logic of what you just shared with us, that your legal advice leads you to believe that mediation and the sum of money that was arrived at was actually good value for the public purse, because the risk was that the cost would have been two to…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Okay. If you could let us know, because I think that that's quite an important piece of information.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Right. Sorry, I was under the assumption—I think that your ARAC committee can have up to four independent members. So, you're not aware, at this stage, whether there were any independent members at all at the time of this dispute.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
Isn't one of the reasons that we have independent members on these audit and risk—you know, ARAC—committees, which are pretty standard throughout the public sector and, indeed, in parts of the private sector in different form—isn't one of the reasons for that…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Accounts scrutiny: Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales
What was the role of the audit and risk committee—whatever the term is, formally—? You do have a risk and audit committee, do you not, and that usually includes some of the trustees, but also additional, independent individuals—yes? Did they have a role in…
