There's a wide variety of arguments for supporting the lowering of the voting age. I continue to be of the opinion that lowering the voting age to 16 will empower young people at 16 and 17 to vote at Welsh general elections, giving them a voice on decisions that will define their future. It will help to nurture good citizenship in young people and will give an impetus to improve citizenship education. I very much hope that this is an investment in the future of our democracy. It's possible that lowering the voting age may also increase engagement in voting over the longer term, and there is encouraging evidence to suggest that an earlier experience of voting will lead to individuals maintaining that habit.

It also builds on the work that we have done to establish the first Welsh Youth Parliament in this place, and I'm very pleased to say that many of them are fantastic ambassadors for the votes at 16 campaign. Members opposed amendments to remove these provisions at Stage 2, and I urge you to do so again today by rejecting amendments 100 to 126 from Darren Millar.

I turn now to other issues in regard to education and awareness raising. During our discussions at Stage 2, I highlighted the importance of the lowering of the voting age being accompanied by appropriate political and citizenship education, and by public awareness raising. It's appropriate here to refer to the excellent work done by the Youth Parliament, and, since our last meeting on this Bill, the Youth Parliament has published its committee report on life skills in the curriculum. It's important to look at the findings. It found that only 10 per cent of young people had been taught political education up to the age of 18. It expressed disappointment at these low figures in light of our proposals to change the voting age, and suggested that this reflects the lack of confidence teachers and schools in general have in teaching this important subject. So, it's important that we make a step change in this regard within our schools, and it’s the Welsh Government's responsibility to ensure that educational resources are made available to schools and that there is good provision within the curriculum, whether delivered by teachers or by specialist external organisations such as proposed by the Welsh Youth Parliament. It was wonderful to see the Minister, Kirsty Williams, and also the Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, Lynne Neagle, discussing this report from the Youth Parliament in the Parliament's last meeting a few weeks ago in this Chamber.

So, there is work to do, and we are very aware as an Assembly Commission, and also Welsh Government and other partners, of the work that is to be done in introducing this legislation to ensure that we work together to prepare the resources needed by our young people to educate them about this new right for them, and to prepare and collaborate with our Youth Parliament to ensure that the materials to be provided, the work that we are doing to prepare our young people, and the engagement, has a contribution from the Youth Parliament, and others, in a way that targets resources at the appropriate age.

With regard to post-legislative scrutiny, if the Assembly does determine that a duty to provide education and awareness raising is necessary, then it may also be considered whether it's appropriate to provide a mechanism to facilitate post-implementation scrutiny of this duty, as provided for by amendment 4 from David Melding. The Assembly Commission will welcome such scrutiny of this Bill and intends to evaluate its own effectiveness in implementing those aspects of the legislation for which it will be responsible.

Finally, the technical amendment in my name is amendment 86, and that proposes a minor improvement to the drafting of section 26 in the Welsh version of the Bill alone.