, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
And before I bring Rhianon in, the question then is—. You've talked about the single transferrable vote. I'm in favour of STV. I like that model. Was there a cost question around running STV as opposed to D'Hondt, or was it more of a policy decision that it…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, it's the way I was elected, so I should know how it works.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
You talk about that one ballot paper; obviously, as a regional Member, I'm well aware of how the D'Hondt method works, and it's the way I was elected, so I would hope that I sort of understood it, so that would be a good idea. It's not widely understood in…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
You've made, obviously, assumptions within this, and we're probably looking at Will more than the Minister on this. What's the biggest assumption that you've made, and how have you explained it to the Minister to say, 'Well, this is the assumption we've made…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you. Back to you, Rhianon.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I have one thing to follow up, before I go back to Rhianon. With things like new Members to come in and participate fully, and also just for Senedd staff and Commission staff, things like childcare onsite and that sort of thing—. With regard the closed lists…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Rhianon, before you go on, I think Mike wanted to just come in on a point there.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you, Peter. Rhianon.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Okay. Sorry, Peter.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Does that give a knock-on effect, meaning that you'd need more officials, so, therefore—? Or would you resource your offices from within the current pool that you've got?
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Sorry, Peter—just on those resource elements, you talked a little bit earlier about reconfiguring, potentially, ministerial roles and the resourcing involved in that. What models have you gone through to account for possible reconfiguration of ministerial…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you. Okay. Peter.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
The other thing would be a commitment from you to bring forward an updated RIA after the Stage 2 into Stage 3, as is normal, and I'm assuming you'll be doing a revision once you've seen some of the amendments that come through.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
It'll be interesting to go into that with you when you come back to this committee to talk about that Bill. So, we'll wait with bated breath to hear what you have to say about the finances of that. Excellent. Sorry, Mike.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you very much. I'll move on to Mike Hedges.
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Okay. And the RIA then notes that the Welsh Government could incur ongoing costs of between £8.3 million and £10.3 million per year. How would you intend to fund these additional costs?
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
And because that recommendation was 96, that's why it's been—
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Okay. Thank you very much. The expert panel report recommended that an appropriate size for the new Senedd would be between 80 and 90. Why have you only provided one costed option for 96?
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you very much. I'd like to look at how you've developed the regulatory impact assessment, and looking at the cost estimates from stakeholders that you've included. Can you or your officials talk us through how the process was undertaken, and how did you…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
We heard from the finance Minister yesterday about pressures on the budget and that sort of thing. Obviously, the budget for this will come out of the block grant before it's allocated out. On the extra 12-point-something million pounds a year, is that good…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you very much. Diolch yn fawr. Croeso cynnes. As you're aware, this is broadcast live and there'll be a transcript available for you at the end. We've got quite a lot of ground to cover, so if I could ask for brevity, that would be great, but we'll…
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Welcome to Mick Antoniw, the Counsel General, and his officials. Would you just introduce yourself and your officials for the record?
, Finance Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
A warm welcome back to this next session, and the next session and next item is an item with the Counsel General on the Senedd Cymru Bill.
, Finance Committee
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales—Scrutiny of Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, and Estimate 2024-25: Evidence session
We'll now take a short break to reset the room and to get our next witnesses in. Thank you for your time. Obviously, a transcript will be sent to you so that you can check its accuracy. I think we've covered all the questions, but if something does come up in…
, Finance Committee
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales—Scrutiny of Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, and Estimate 2024-25: Evidence session
Thank you very much for your time this morning.
