1. What assessment has the Commission made of the impact of political defections on democratic engagement? OAQ53486

No assessment. The Commission provides the property, staff and services required for the Assembly's purposes irrespective of the political affiliation of individual Assembly Members.

Thank you very much for that response. Now, naturally, recently, in responding to the fact that Labour MPs had left that party in London and their parliamentary group, the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, and I quote, said that

'If you are elected as a representative of a particular party and you decided that you do not want to do that in the future, you should go back to the people that put you there and let them have that choice again'.

Those are the words of Mark Drakeford. Now, I agree entirely with that view, and because we have seen similar moves here in this Senedd, what assessment will the Commission make of the possibility of developing legislation that would require a Member that leaves a political party to face a by-election? Or are we only to rely on the precedent of what’s happened in the past, and therefore are we to deprive people of a representative of the party that they voted for in the first place?

Well, as I said in my response, no assessment has been undertaken to date on this issue. The Senedd and Elections (Wales) Bill has been introduced in the past few weeks. There was no mandate from this Assembly or any of its committees, nor was this issue included in the remit for the independent review undertaken by Laura McAllister. But, it is an issue, of course. It is raised here, perhaps for the first time, or one of the first times. It's an issue that perhaps the committee that scrutinises the Bill that at the moment is before the Assembly will want to consider or it's an issue for Assembly Members in this place, now that the powers are held in this place since the Wales Act 2017 for us to be legislating on our own electoral systems. So, may I encourage, if there's interest in this place, you to be discussing this and to be bringing forth any proposals? But, until those proposals come before us there will be no mandate for the Commission to be pursuing legislation to this end.