, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Well, fundamental changes to, you know, the time period of elections, how often elections should take place, what might be the format in which the automatic registration takes place, or the actual scope of qualification for elections and so on. I mean, it's…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I think the problem is that it is very difficult to be precise about what the nature of pilots might be. There may well be, from the post-electoral review, recommendations that are made, either by the Electoral Commission, either from the various other…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I think there's a difficulty in trying to define what those pilots, for example, might be, particularly ahead of the 2026 election. I've stated in other committees—I'm not quite sure whether I've stated it here before—that our only intention in terms of…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I am. I mean, it is a Bill that has quite a lot of delegated powers in respect of regulations; that, I think, is there because there are quite a number of areas that are really to do with pilots, the process, the organisation of elections, codes of conduct…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
It's certainly an interesting question. It's a very specific question in terms of the extent to which you can define the various forms of undue influence or interference with elections or harassment that are there. What we've done is taken the undue influence…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I don't think they do. I think the way we've framed the legislation as well, you'll see that, if someone is automatically to be added to the register, what first happens, before they are added, is they will be sent a letter; they'll be notified that the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I mean, we’ve looked at that. I don’t think that there are any real concerns that we have on that. It replicates provisions that are in the UK Government's Elections Act 2022 with regard to reserved elections. As I said, it's a matter that the ECHR has…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Human rights normally form part of my competence assessment, both in respect of the Bill and, indeed, subsequently, once legislation is passed, in my role as Counsel General. We don't consider that there are any significant human rights issues. It does engage…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I don't think they cause any more confusion than the changes that were made by the UK Government's Elections Act caused. Where you have differing devolved responsibilities from the UK Government and us, I think the question is how you actually manage them…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
The main ones, really, were in the area of undue influence and some areas of accessibility, and so on, which we've incorporated into this Bill as well. And the other ones where we thought there was merit in them, it was a question as to whether we could do it…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I can tell you as well that the inter-ministerial group on elections is actually continuing, and, from engagement we've had with UK Government Ministers, they're interested in our legislation. They will, of course, have seen the draft of it. And we have a…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
We had quite extensive engagement through the interministerial group on elections when the UK Government's legislation was going through. As you know, the area where there was a lot of disagreement was obviously over the use of ID cards and some of the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I think because, after the work that was done, the Bill itself, in terms of policy areas, is actually very, very narrow, isn't it? It's about automatic registration and the establishment of a statutory electoral mechanism. Much of the rest of it is to do…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes, what I can say is that the consultations that took place, through the White Paper, engaged with all of the key parts of the Bill—they were within that White Paper and, I think, have now appeared within the Bill itself. There were certain areas that we've…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
The answer is 'yes, I am'.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I am indeed.
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
It's a learning curve for all of us, I think, in terms of how we assess these things and the criteria that go into it, so I think it's very useful.
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Yes.
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I beg your pardon. Sorry.
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Well, I think the affordability assessment is actually a product of the recommendations from this particular committee. It relates also to value for money and also the building into our costings of inflation as well to try and create more accurate—. But…
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Well, can I say, firstly, I think we have a very expert team? I think this is complicated legislation. It is fundamentally important legislation to be got right. It is important that it has the confidence of citizens and so on. I'm very satisfied that, within…
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
One of the difficulties is it's almost impossible to work out what the implication of this might be other than, of course, we already have legislative restrictions in terms of issues around undue influence. What I think the legislation does, which also…
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
No, no, none at all.
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I think it's mainly a power that's there for the fact that it may want to commission training, for example, and you see that legislation makes very specific that it's training that has to be cost neutral. So, it's not something that can be run or operates…
