26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
The Deputy Presiding Officer role, Deputy Presiding Officer.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Is it okay to move on to something slightly different?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
It could. On vacancies, there's a clear situation about vacancies at the moment: if it's a closed list, it goes to whoever's next on the list, if this is a party position. If it's not a party position, if the individual either leaves a party or was elected as…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Yes. And of course it's worth us considering the fact that the next Senedd elections would be undertaken at a time when automatic voter registration is taking place as well, and that, because of its first implementation, could also throw up challenges…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
So, we'll need to make some consequential amendments to other pieces of legislation, potentially.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Thank you.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
And I think we all have accepted that, obviously, some of the ministerial briefs are extremely wide, the portfolios are extremely wide. Some of the subject responsibilities of committees are very broad and wide as well. But, of course, if there were to be…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Obviously, I appreciate the Business Committee has discussed some of these matters as well—which I and other people around this table also attend. There is a proposal, of course, to increase the number of Ministers from 12 to 17, possibly up to 19, by a…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
There's no proposed increase in the number of Senedd Commissioners. You obviously chair the Senedd Commission. Do you think that that is a problem? Do think that we need more Commissioners, or do you think, actually, it could function, with 96 Members, with…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Do you think 96 Members is the right number of Members for the Senedd and what complications might that throw up for the working arrangements in the Senedd Commission?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Just to put it into context, the costs laid out in 2017, which were for a 90-Member Senedd—the upper-scale costs—in today's money, according to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, would be about £4.2 million. So, it's significantly different than the…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
No? They were just accepted.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
At the time. And there was no challenge from the Welsh Government about the assumptions that had been made on those capital costs in particular.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
Yes. I'm just trying to understand why they're so wildly different, and why even those figures are still less than those that were in the report in 2017. So, the figures I've got in front in me from the 2017 report have the costs of the alteration of the…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Llywydd a Chomisiwn y Senedd
I do just want to test this area of costs a bit, because, looking back at the expert panel's recommendations back in 2017, the costs even then—the capital costs—were higher than the capital costs the Commission has put forward now. Obviously, now's costs you…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
I'm grateful.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
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…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
It's a really, really brief one.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
Can I ask just one final question?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
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…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
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…
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
Yes. Great.
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
—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—?
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
Yes. Laura's already answered the question about the fact that the proposed zipping arrangements—
26 Hydref 2023 , Reform Bill Committee
Bil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau): Sesiwn dystiolaeth gyda’r Panel Arbenigol ar Ddiwygio Etholiadol y Cynulliad
Okay. Thank you, Chair.
