, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Okay. It was just a really simple, straightforward question. Under the current arrangements, any constituency that's twinned with Anglesey to form a Senedd constituency will have about 25,000 fewer voters than everywhere else. Do you think it's right that…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
It's a really, really brief one.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Can I ask just one final question?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Okay. And with the current arrangements kicking in at the point of candidature, rather than on election, do you think there's an issue there? So, at the moment, we have rules around individuals who can stand for election and are not disqualified from becoming…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
I have four minutes. Can I ask you about residency requirements, if that's okay? So, in the Bill, it proposes that in order to be both a candidate and a Member of the Senedd, you must live in Wales. I think everybody's got sympathy with that point. But some…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Yes. Great.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
—won't necessarily deliver a balanced Senedd without other action perhaps being taken. But you can assure us that this issue of ensuring gender zipping can still take place within a flexible list system, which is what you've already—?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Yes. Laura's already answered the question about the fact that the proposed zipping arrangements—
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Okay. Thank you, Chair.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
But three would be enough, would it? Because the scenarios range from one to three committees.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
And just in terms of the balance here, there are an additional five Ministers, potentially up to an additional seven Ministers, but on the parliamentary side, the scenarios that are set out suggest just an additional three committees of the Senedd in order to…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
So, there'd have to be a clear business case, as it were, a justification for that increase.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
So up to 19 is about right, or up to 17—could you just clarify that for me?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Okay. But 17 is about right—you'd agree with that, would you, Laura?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Ministers obviously could only introduce those regulations if there was a vote in the Senedd—that's what we're told—and of course it would take the number of Ministers from the current 12 up to 17 and then up to 19, potentially, with the vote. One thing that…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
I wish you had, otherwise I wouldn't be asking you. Okay. We'll make sure that we refer to the report. Can I turn everybody's attention, then, to the issue of the number of Ministers that's proposed in this Bill? In your evidence, Alan Renwick, you made…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Just another aspect of cost, obviously, is making this building fit for purpose and providing sufficient office space for bums on seats, as it were, and the kit that people might need. The Senedd Commission figures seem to be rather lower than you would…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Yes, of course.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Yes, I mean, just looking at the figures, they're, what, 38 per cent higher than you'd expect them to be, accounting for inflation. Okay—
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
So, your figures took into account a reduction in staffing levels, did they, for MSs?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform
Can I just pick up on the costs issue, for a moment, if I may? You're right, this does influence how people feel about the proposals and whether they support their implementation or not. So, in your report in 2017, you indicated an upper cost end—which…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: A&E department performance data
We've had examples this afternoon of us all working together to declare the Holodomor a genocide, for example. So, I don't think that it's fair to suggest that we don't work together on a cross-party basis where it's sensible to do so. And of course we're…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: A&E department performance data
Does it happen elsewhere in other nations? 'No, it doesn't', is the answer, and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine are fully aware of that, and that's why you criticising very intelligent people who are doctors doesn't look good, frankly, and yet, that's…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: A&E department performance data
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I've listened very carefully to this debate and I have to say, I'm surprised by the Minister's response. You have repeatedly compared the emergency department performance between Wales and England, consistently saying that…
, Plenary
Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): The Holodomor
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I also start by paying tribute to the work of Mick Antoniw—not only for his role here in the Welsh Government and the Welsh Parliament, but for the leading role that he is playing in ensuring that the voice of the…
