, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Questions now from party leaders. The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew R.T. Davies.
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Good afternoon. We are ready to begin our meeting, and the first item is questions to the First Minister. The first question is from Joel James.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Indeed. Yes, and that wouldn't be for Standing Orders, that would be for legislation, but that isn't an issue for the Business Committee at this point, but it is a debate to be had as to what constitutes a closed list, Jane, and I think we're both quite close…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Yes, that's a very good point, David, and, for us to remind ourselves, even though I'm in the company here of party whips, primarily—of business managers—who are all about, in their DNA, party control—it's important to remember that Members leaving groups is…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
David.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
No, that's clear and understood. Diolch, Jane. Because a closed list system is that the party puts forward their chosen list and the voter has no ability to choose from within that list. The point of discussion, really, is whether the list will be on the…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
No, no.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
—ways where groups and Members have already exercised their ways of working in different ways once they've left a political party to which they were elected, and we've got all kinds of different examples of what they've done after that, whether that's voting…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
No, I understand that. And we've seen all kinds of—
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Yes, you are. Yes, I was just checking whether there was any reason why the preferred option here of a closed list—the preferred option of the Welsh Government proposal—would prohibit names being on the electoral ballot, and no decision has been made on that…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Yes, okay. Diolch, Jane. Darren.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
A political party or group.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Okay. Fine. Let's go for a 'no increase', and I'll report that back to the Commission. I don't think there were particularly strong views. I shouldn't be saying that, I'm sure, but I think that we're fine with the number that we have for what we are doing…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
We'll bring a proposal back on that to reflect, I think, where we all are on that, that there needs to be a kind of control mechanism on any executive or group being large enough to dominate those roles. The number of Senedd Commissioners, then. I think, with…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
I think there's something in current legislation on that, is there?
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Sorry, yes, Darren.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Other than to say that there should be a mechanism, either in legislation or in Standing Orders, that ensures that not all of those elected are from an executive, which could be a large coalition, remember, compared to a non-executive. Okay. I think we'll…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Right. And what was my proposal on that?
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
I think we'll bring all of this back. This is just a new twist on it, which is not the wrong thing to do, but it's just—. So, we'll explore these options and we'll bring some proposals back to you. Just the one other issue that remains, then, is that we, via…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Yes. Okay. Lesley.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
David.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Okay. If we could just, for the time being, say that we agree that we should ask officials to change the name to 'Speaker', 'Deputy Speaker', 'Llywydd', 'Dirprwy Lywydd', but that we also consider the possibility of using a monolingual Welsh term. There is no…
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Okay. Fine.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
So, what that means is that we would create this bit of the legislation by reference to 'Llywydd' and 'Dirprwy Lywydd', or two 'Dirprwy Lywydds', but we would also need to replicate that with a term in English.
, Business Committee
Senedd Reform
Yes. But there will be a Welsh version of this legislation.
