As the Chair of the committee has said, it's absolutely crucial that the Assembly promotes a culture of dignity and respect for all its Members and staff so that anyone who has a complaint or grievance against another person has the opportunity to declare it in a safe and secure environment. Therefore, I'm pleased to be a member of the standards committee for this inquiry and work with Members across the political spectrum to implement a system that works for everyone involved with the Assembly.

It's pretty evident from the evidence received to the consultation that people feel that the current system needs improving and that the Assembly needs to change the way that it handles complaints and allegations in the future. Of course, the committee's aware of the work done by the UK parliamentary working group on this matter, and so my first question to the Chair is whether she will agree with me that, whilst we can look at the work of other Parliaments, it's crucial that we develop a system that is bespoke to the Assembly and responds to its needs rather than just being a carbon copy of actions taken from other legislatures.

Of course, any new system must also sit alongside political party processes and those systems must complement, not conflict with one another and it's evident from the evidence that we've already heard that this is a particular concern for some stakeholders. Therefore, perhaps the Chair can tell us whether she intends for us, as a committee, to engage with political party representatives, either through evidence sessions or through written correspondence, to gauge their views on how any new system can work with their current party complaints processes.

The evidence that the committee has received indicates the need to implement a whole new change of culture at the Assembly. Perhaps there's scope here to extend this thinking by delivering training to members of staff to help better understand and prevent harassment from taking place in the workplace. The Equality and Human Rights Commission rightly raised that ongoing discussion in the workplace is one of the steps that can be taken to prevent harassment and therefore any new system must be flexible and under constant monitoring to ensure its continued effectiveness. Therefore, I believe that there is scope here for the Assembly to look at training modules for members and staff in this area, and I wonder if the Chair would agree with me that this is something that could also be rolled out as well as introducing this as part of any induction processes for members and staff as well as providing ongoing communication around any new harassment policies.

Naturally, any new system must keep anonymity at the centre of it in order to protect all individuals concerned and so I'd be grateful if the Chair could perhaps share her initial thoughts on the way in which that anonymity can actually be protected.

Sadly, we now live in a world that is dominated by social media. Members are all too aware of instances of individuals being abused on social media. Indeed, the committee has already heard how harassment on social media is quite quickly becoming the norm, and so any new system or new approach must also include dealing with inappropriate behaviour online. I’m sure the Chair would agree with me that the scale of the problem is quite alarming and so I'd be grateful if she could share her initial thoughts on how we, as a committee, can start dealing with inappropriate behaviour online.

Finally, Llywydd, I'd like to briefly touch on the monitoring of any new policies and procedures and encourage the Chair to ensure that this is fully considered throughout the inquiry. It’s my view that any new system is only as good as its enforcement, and so it's crucial that we ensure the robustness of new policies by monitoring them effectively, and so perhaps the Chair could also share her views on how any new system could be monitored in the future. Therefore, in closing, Llywydd, can I thank the Chair for her statement this afternoon? And I agree with her that it takes commitment, time and persistence to achieve meaningful cultural change. I really can't understate how important this inquiry is, and I look forward to working with the Chair and the other Members of the inquiry to help deliver a system that fosters a much more inclusive workplace, where people are not deterred from coming forward with complaints and where all individuals involved are protected throughout the investigation process. Diolch.