, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Yes. So, you were just starting to list the benefits. If you can continue, and then I'll come in.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Especially with automatic registration starting, yes? I mean that, I think, is a—
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
So, there'll need to be an amendment to the Bill, won't there, in order to accommodate that?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
But you accept that mistakes can happen with registration, and, if a mistake happens, a register is published and someone who's an existing, sitting Member of the Senedd isn't on that register, they would be immediately disqualified. Do you think that's…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
And, of course, mistakes can happen with electoral rolls. We know that the Welsh Government wanted to introduce a system of automatic voter registration, and they've not been without problems in other parts of the world where they've been introduced. At the…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Can I just ask about the way in which this is tested? So, we heard from the Electoral Commission, and from others, about the fact that, at the moment, it's a simple candidate declaration, effectively, that is submitted. There's no requirement on electoral…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
You seem to be satisfied with that. I don't think—[Inaudible.]—who is satisfied with that.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
But many people, of course, whose main homes are in England, are on the electoral registers in Wales at their second home. So, you accept that those people ought to be eligible to be candidates for elections at the Senedd, do you, Minister?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Yes. We've heard a lot of evidence that supports the view that people who are elected to the Senedd, making laws about Wales, should reside in Wales. Many of our witnesses expressed their support for that policy and the provisions in the Bill in relation to…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Because, frankly, if one of the factors and reasons and part of the rationale for having this additional facility for an additional two is to enable coalitions to take place so that we can have stable coalitions in the future, then surely this ought to be…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Well, I would have expected you to set that out in your explanatory memorandum as to part of the rationale for putting this into the Bill, but, of course, you didn't, did you?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
So, why talk about coalitions?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
You seem to be bringing a completely different argument to the table now. I mean, you were suggesting earlier that the reason for this increase was if the Senedd were to be endowed with significant extra powers, then there might be a need to increase the…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Okay. Thank you.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Just to be categoric.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
It wasn't?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
But is that why you selected 10 per cent, is it?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Well, they've had their flexibility of 5 per cent to manage the job on smaller constituencies, which is more difficult. So, people, I think, will find it odd. I mean, of course, the one thing that does stand out to me is that that sort of margin would be…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
So, why not reduce the quota, then, if you've got all these other rules to abide by? Because, effectively, that's a licence to allow for a 30,000 difference between two constituencies.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
So, why not remove the quota, then?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
But you accept that that could be the peculiar result; an unintended consequence could be a constituency that has 30,000 more electors than the one it's next door to.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
So, you think it's fair that one constituency might have 135,000 people who are electors in it, versus another with 165,000? Because that's the sort of margin we're talking about.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
You'd expect the margin to go down the bigger a constituency is, you see.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
So, if I can turn, then, to this issue of the 10 per cent electoral quota margin that is built into the Bill, obviously we know that the quota margin is 5 per cent for the UK Parliament elections, and that's on a constituency size of around 75,000. A 10 per…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Two months. Okay.
