6. Statement by the Chair of the Committee on Assembly Electoral Reform: An update on the work of the Committee

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:44 pm on 8 January 2020.

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Photo of Dawn Bowden Dawn Bowden Labour 4:44, 8 January 2020

Thank you, Llywydd. I'll keep my response very brief. Janet, you're absolutely right, and I think I did touch on this earlier on in a response, about looking at—it was actually in response to Huw Irranca-Davies. One of the things the committee will be doing is looking at the way that we work, because even if we get agreement on recommending an increased Assembly, and the Assembly votes for that, and we get it, and the next Government approves that—because it won't be this Government; it'll be the next Welsh Government that would take that through—there will still be a period of five years where we're going to be working with 60 Members. So, the status quo is not an option in terms of how we currently work. That was the view expressed to us by a number of people, and so that will be one of the things that we—. That is one of the things that we have to consider in the evidence that we are taking: if we do not move to a greater number of Assembly Members, then we would be looking to make recommendations about the way in which the Assembly operates differently, because it cannot continue to operate in the way that it is now, with the current number of Members.