, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
The Commission looked at this itself, and there are no further responsibilities for Commissioners to undertake as a result of this legislation, so it felt comfortable with the number of Commissioners as outlined in this Bill. There is more work for the…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
I don't think there's a right and wrong number, and there are various expert panels and others who have considered what the number should be, or what the range of the number should be. The expert panel itself that looked into this issue in 2017 came up with a…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Well, it wasn't at the request of the Llywydd for this to be in the Bill, so it is a matter for the Member in charge to respond to that in terms of why it's in the Bill, and for you as a committee to think about whether it should be in the Bill or not. I…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Several things come to mind when thinking about that question. I think the most fundamental thing is that, any Senedd, even this Senedd, could establish that committee now if it chooses to do so, it doesn't require an Act of this Parliament to establish a…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
That would be a requirement on the Boundary Commission for Wales to look at that, at that particular point, I would say. And I would hope that they would carry out that work.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Well, my view is that it's important that the assessment has been carried out. Yes, it's in the context of naming constituencies.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
There is a requirement on the—. I assume that this is the Welsh language impact assessment that the Government has carried out in introducing this Bill. I'm not aware of the content of that at this point, but I would suggest, perhaps, that it's a question for…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
No. And it will up to the Llywydd in terms of the motion tabled. I assume that it will be quite a simple motion, and then the Senedd will decide how that simple motion should be taken further through committee membership, should they decide to establish such…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Yes. The Bill places a requirement on the next Llywydd in the next Senedd to bring a motion before the Senedd to establish a committee to look at the issue of job sharing. It is unusual, as I understand it, for a piece of legislation of this kind to place a…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
I know. I'm not telling you what to do.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
And just to say that it's very important at all opportunities, in this legislation and elsewhere, that we are clear as to whether we're talking about non-political Commission staff or political staff working for Members. If there is any ambiguity in the Bill…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Are you aware what that question's about?
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Well, yes, that work in preparing, particularly those who were voting for the first time following that electoral change in 2021, the Senedd was involved with that, the Electoral Commission also, and, of course, the Government too, along with local…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
I would say that that discussion isn't a discussion that will feature in this Bill, or the work to date on the Bill at least. But, certainly, in terms of implementing the Bill, and implementing the change, then the different partners involved with this—the…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Well, in terms of Commission business, including this, the executive board of officials very often brings papers forward to the Commission, and it's a matter for the Commission then, who are Commissioners from political parties, to agree or otherwise—for…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Well, let's start with 'finger in the air'—no, it wasn't, and I'm sure that everything I've explained to you to date shows how the Commission itself, both in terms of staff and in terms of the Commissioners, looked at the figures carefully that were provided…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
And I think, looking back at all of this, over the period of the last five to six years when I've been Llywydd, and thinking that this could be coming along the line as the expert panel had developed their work, et cetera, one of the assumptions of course is…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Yes. Manon and Alun.
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
I'm going to ask Alun, because we obviously have costed for the increased costs of travel and maintenance and overnight spend that an additional number of Members will have, and I'm guessing that some of those issues will have been looked at in terms of…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Well, I think that the costings that we supplied to the Welsh Government were the most accurate, robust costings we could've supplied at that time, given the fact that we had the basis of assumptions, of course—that there is a minimal change and a greater…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
The two aspects that were subject to change in that process were, first, to reduce the length of time of the period of years, because one year, the 2023-24, would have been a spent year, in that the funding would already have been spent by the time the Bill…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Okay. In terms of the costs that were provided by the Senedd Commission to the Welsh Government and have appeared in the regulatory impact assessment, we were requested to provide those costs by Welsh Government back in last December, and then the…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
As I said, technically, the Bill is a Bill of a Welsh Minister, introduced into the Senedd. The spirit of the Bill, of course, part of it, has emanated from the motion agreed by the Senedd to ask the Welsh Government to bring forward this Bill. It has parts…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Well, the Member in charge of the Bill is a member of the Government, but the background of the Bill is more, possibly, unusual in its construct than other more straightforward Government Bills that come via manifesto and programmes of government that a…
, Reform Bill Committee
Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill: Evidence session with the Llywydd and the Senedd Commission
Yes, thank you very much, Chair. I will allow officials to introduce themselves if that's okay. Manon.
