6. Statement by the Leader of the House: The Centenary of Women's Suffrage

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:33 pm on 6 February 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 5:33, 6 February 2018

Yes. The short answer to that is, 'Yes, they can.' We've got the three themes; so as long as you fit into the three themes, the grant will be applicable, and it's very plain that promoting change in order to encourage all three of the themes is a very simple thing to do. So, absolutely, and I would expect to be using the grant money. We've put a range of available moneys in because we want to encourage very small local schemes as well as the bigger schemes, hence the wide range of grant aid available, for exactly that reason—so we can encourage hyperlocal things that might make a difference locally to the ability to change a particular thing that might be seen as a barrier or to celebrate something or whatever, and indeed you might have a much bigger scheme to look at perhaps a nationwide effort to pick up particular barriers and changes. I spoke a little bit in the statement about trying to encourage a wide range of women to come forward as well to celebrate the diversity of women in Welsh life, and it's very important to us that we do encourage that, because we know that women who also have other characteristics, protected characteristics, face even more of a barrier than many of us who don't have some of those characteristics.

On the quota thing, I'm having long discussions with my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for public services about some of the things we might be promoting in local councils. I have no problem with quotas myself; I'm not in a position to commit the Government to it at the moment, but it's certainly an ongoing and active discussion that we're having in the Government and, indeed, I'd encourage us to have it across the Chamber as well about the various mechanisms that are available. I concur with the very many women who've been saying all over the UK today that we celebrate the 100 years, but that progress has been too slow, and that I'm not prepared for my daughters and granddaughters to be having this conversation in another 50 or 100 years. And so, we do need to find a way to accelerate this change, to celebrate the successes and the sacrifices of the past, but also to make sure that we don't need to be having a similar conversation again in 100 years.