I strongly agree with the latter point that Jenny Rathbone makes. If I thought, as I started out by saying, that there was any worthwhile rehabilitative value in giving prisoners the right to vote, I would support doing that. I don't, in fact, think that there is, and I do believe that it should be open to society to express its revulsion at criminal offences by removing the right to vote from those who have other rights removed from them by virtue of the fact of imprisonment itself. Certainly, it should be for institutions such as the National Assembly to take that decision, not unelected judges in courts in Strasbourg. It's the European Court of Human Rights that we are dealing with here, not the European Court of Justice. So, we will not be leaving the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, and we will still have to observe the decisions of those judges.

The Government at UK level has proposed some minor changes that have actually been accepted now by the Council of Ministers as fulfilling the judgment in the Hirst case. They are relatively limited in effect, and I'll just read them into the record. There are five of them. Prisoners on remand can vote. Prisoners committed to prison for contempt of court can vote. Prisoners committed to prison for default in paying fines can vote. Eligible prisoners released on temporary licence can vote. And prisoners released on home detention curfew can vote. I hope that, in conformity with the judgment of the European court, when the Welsh Government puts its proposals forward after it has considered the report of the equalities committee, they won't go one jot or tittle beyond that, because I think that there is absolutely no public support whatsoever for giving prisoners the vote. If we had a people's vote on this issue, I've no doubt that there would be a very heavy majority against doing so. So, I think that the Government has a heavy responsibility on its shoulders if it wants truly to represent the people, not least in Labour constituencies, to keep the legislation to the minimum possible.