Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House – in the Senedd at 2:51 pm on 24 January 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:51, 24 January 2018

So, the very simple answer to that last question is 'yes'. In fact, I've just commissioned a piece of work jointly with my officials in Chwarae Teg to see how we can make sure there is good gender representation—half and half, not 40 per cent—on all public boards sponsored by the Welsh Government in this Assembly term. I'm hoping to be able to report back when they've done that small piece of work to get that agenda running. The reason that's important is because those are the governing bodies of many of the organisations you've just talked about, and we know that having better gender equality, better diversity, on those boards, drives some of the behaviours that we want.

The Member's rightly identified that agenda. It will be part of the bilaterals that I'm having with all colleagues, including my health colleague, but there is a huge issue about making sure that the leadership of organisations properly reflects the population that it serves, including for gender but for other diversity issues as well, and that that drives the behaviour of the organisation. So, I share that aim with a very large number of my Cabinet colleagues, and we will be pushing that agenda very forcibly into the future.