Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Firstly, I'd like to thank the committee for their valuable and important work in this area, and I'd also place on record both my thanks and that of the Minister for Housing and Local Government to the numerous organisations and individuals who have contributed in this. We welcome the work of the committee and we'll be voting in favour today.

The Welsh Government is committed to increasing diversity within elected office, working to enable and empower people who want to put themselves forward for election to serve their communities. We know that when our politics reflects our people, our communities and our country are all the better for it. So, working with partners to identify and break down barriers, both in terms of perception and in a more practical sense, and the Chair touched on those practical suggestions that are in the report, which I'll come to shortly.

But I'd first like to touch on perception, both in what political office is and who it's for and who is a politician. Leanne Wood talked about the traditional stereotype of what people see of what a politician is, and I hesitate to say 'pale and male' with Huw standing so close to me, but don't worry, we definitely weren't saying you were stale. But in all seriousness, though, when I was growing up, I never thought I'd be a politician because a politician didn't look like me, he wasn't someone like me and it wasn't something that I ever thought I could do. But actually I was thinking about it recently and I think I may have reached that point, Dirprwy Lywydd, when I've matched the stereotype as I'm approaching middle age, I'm white and I now have a wife.

But in all seriousness, we know that lived experience means that we can serve our communities with authenticity, and the strongest way to make sure our voice and our views of all parts of our communities and our society are represented in the discussion and debate that takes place within our democracy, both within our communities and within our country. In short, a demographic deficit can shape a democratic deficit and lead to a disconnection with our decision making and our democratic process.

But as we've heard today, people can only embark on the journey to become an elected Member if they are aware of what an elected Member is, what they do and how they do it. The Chair has touched on the lack of information out there for people in terms of actually how they could become a councillor and what that involved. So, we need to ensure we all maximise all opportunities to raise awareness of the role and also the value of councillors. We've all heard those negative perceptions and stereotypes of, actually, a councillor who doesn't do anything, they don't work hard, but we all know that across our communities and within this Chamber, people here might be hearing from different backgrounds with a different ideology, but the majority of us want to do our best to serve our communities.

So, during the coming months, we will work with partners to identify key components of our campaign to raise the profile of councillors, the key contributions they make to society and the difference they make to their neighbours and wider communities. We will look to capitalise on this and promote and raise awareness of the practical contributions people have made on the ground and in local areas. And key to any campaign will be to challenge the increasing negativity around politics. But it's important that we address this through a partnership approach.

But as I said, we don't need to just challenge the perception, we have to take action to remove the practical barriers to participation, both at the outset and to enable ongoing involvement. This involves ensuring appropriate support systems are in place in terms of training and development, emotional support and a mechanism to safeguard well-being. There's already a wide range of training and development opportunities available for councillors, ranging from induction programmes to leadership programmes, but as we've heard today, we can always do more and we can build on this. We'll be looking at what we might do to increase and maximise the opportunities, and we're keen to work with others to identify additional areas for attention.