2. What consideration has the Assembly Commission given to establishing chaplaincy services for Assembly Member support staff and Assembly Members? OAQ51600

The Commission has no plans to establish chaplaincy services. However, we do provide quiet rooms in Tŷ Hywel and the Senedd for prayer, contemplation, or just quiet time on a multifaith basis—

I'm sorry, I can't hear.

The Commission’s employee assistance programme also provides emotional and practical support and is available to all Members, their staff and Commission staff.

Thank you for your answer, Commissioner. The cross-party group on faith recently held a discussion on the topic 'Faith-based chaplaincy, is it worth it?' and we heard from people serving as chaplains within public sector organisations and we heard from individuals who've been recipients of the benefits of chaplaincy services, which, of course, are helping to reduce disputes and disagreements between public sector providers and service users, they're bringing comfort to people in times of crisis and, of course, they're able to offer pastoral care, regardless of people's faith, beliefs, or whether they've got any faith at all. We felt that these were important benefits that might be of use to Assembly Members, to Assembly Members' staff and, indeed, Commission staff here on the Assembly estate. Notwithstanding the good work that's being done to support staff and Assembly Members here in the National Assembly, I do think that there's something quite unique in terms of the pastoral care that chaplaincy services can offer, and I wonder whether this is something that the Commission could discuss in depth to see whether there might be an opportunity to develop a chaplaincy service, which I certainly would welcome and I know that some other Assembly Members would welcome too, particularly given the sort of trauma that the Assembly suffered in the last three months of last year.

Members might be aware that, historically, there has been a Cardiff Bay chaplain, most recently Reverend Peter Noble. However, it came to an end in the summer of 2017, and we're informed that the group of churches involved here have no intention of or funding to replace the role. Should members of the cross-party group on faith wish to arrange chaplaincy support themselves at no cost whatsoever to the Commission, arrangements could be made for them to make use of a room within the Assembly estate for that purpose. This is permissible under the rules for the cross-party groups.