2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 7 May 2019.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 2:46, 7 May 2019

(Translated)

May I ask for a statement from the Welsh Government on the Government’s consultation processes, because many of us will have been quite shocked to understand recently that a petition presented to the Petitions Committee in this Assembly, despite having thousands of signatories, only 12 per cent of those names had addresses in Wales? That raises a question, which is a matter for the Petitions Committee, of course, but it encouraged me to think, ‘Well, what does the Welsh Government do with the responses that it receives to consultations, and how can we as Members here be assured that the Government is giving appropriate weighting to responses from Wales, because petitions will be presented as part of responses to consultations?' Responses provided online by certain pressure groups and lobbyists will also contribute to those consultations. So, in terms of transparency, will you as a Government consider publishing what percentage of all consultations—and not retrospectively, perhaps, but from here on in—that you publish what percentage of responses to consultations have responses coming from Wales so that we can be clear that the Government is giving full consideration to those responses coming from Welsh constituents?