Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:02 pm on 7 March 2018.
Thank you very much for your comments, and I'm very grateful to you for putting those on the record today. The respect and dignity policy is due to be debated, as I said, in the first week back after the Easter recess, so that will give us all an opportunity to vote on that policy. So, it's still in the consultation period at the moment, but we hope that that will be in the first week back after recess.
The committee members are all willing to speak to anybody. You know, we're here; we're going to be doing that next Tuesday, and we can do that on a regular basis. So, if people do have any questions or comments, and they'd like to share that with us—and obviously staff as well—to ask us about the process, they are very welcome to approach us, specifically next Tuesday or when we do it again in the future or any time. I believe that the Standards Commissioner will also be doing regular drop-ins for members and staff. So, hopefully that will help to make sure that people are understanding of the process.
We took formal evidence in committee last week from, as you said, certain equality organisations, like the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Stonewall, Chwarae Teg, Welsh Women's Aid, and we did write out to as many of those organisations as possible to take part. It was really important to hear from them and to also hear the great work that they're doing. We should share that work and we should do that much better sometimes.
So, we are really doing everything we can, and please—I put out a plea, really, that, while this formal consultation has closed, we are still willing and ready to hear any evidence from anybody. You know, all the comments that you've raised today—this is now on the record and we can take that forward as part of our inquiry as well. So, we're very glad for anybody to get in touch with us about how they see the process could be improved or how it will work in the future.
Your point about the wider public debate—that's crucial. We can't just be having this here. We've got be talking wider, and we have to be making sure that this isn't just one day, or once a year—. You know, we really need to be talking about it as often as possible and making sure that that conversation is had, and I would be very glad to support Siân Gwenllian's suggestion of a national conversation on this, because I think the more times we talk about it, the more times we raise it, the better. So, anything, as a committee, that we can do, I'm sure we'd be very keen to help on that, and how we can drive that forward—we could have those discussions as well.