1. Will the Commission provide an update on the flags flown on the Assembly estate? OAQ55226

The Assembly has four flag poles at three locations on the estate—two Welsh flags, one union jack flag, and one National Assembly for Wales flag, which are flown on the poles every day. There are established arrangements for varying the flags that are displayed, and the guest flags take the place of the Assembly flag, usually.

Thank you for that response.

I was very pleased to see the Catalan flag flying today, but, on a more regular basis, I wonder whether we could continue to fly the Commonwealth flag, which I saw earlier in the week. We have been members of the Commonwealth, obviously, since the inception of it. It has 54 member states, it encompasses 11 million square miles, spans all six inhabited continents, has 20 per cent of the world's landmass and a population of 2.4 billion people. The London declaration that established the Commonwealth member states as equal and free in 1949 states that its values are democracy, human rights and the rule of law, values that every progressive society should preserve and defend in the twenty-first century. And, of course, it has been presided over, as head of the Commonwealth, by Her Majesty the Queen for 68 years. So, I wonder if the Llywydd could tell us whether the Commission would look favourably upon this request either to fly the Commonwealth flag on a permanent basis, subject to special occasions such as today, or the flags of individual Commonwealth countries.

Usually, of course, on the fourth pole, it's the National Assembly flag that is flown. As the Member has said, the Catalan flag is flown today in recognition of the fact that the Presiding Officer of the Catalonian Parliament is visiting, and the Commonwealth flag was flown yesterday and the day before that to recognise the Commonwealth Day. That's what the policy has been in recent years: to fly the Commonwealth flag for two days per year during the period of Commonwealth Day.

I often have applications from Members to fly various flags to do with unions, states and different campaigns. I think it's very important that we do keep one of our flag poles available for the flags that reflect the special days or weeks or months to promote campaigns and recognised international days. That's my opinion on the issue. I don't expect every Member to agree with that. 

Huw Irranca-Davies. No?

My apologies; I didn't realise my name was down. But, yes, I would like to ask a question relating to—

Well, don't feel obliged. Don't feel obliged to. But you are down.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. My request would be, knowing that we have an international strategy now that is looking at our links with other regions that have Celtic connections—the Basque Country, Catalonia, et cetera—whether or not we can indeed look at periodically, actually, flying, as we have today, those flags on a much more regular basis, and echoing what Neil Hamilton has just said, because I think that would be a good indication of the fact that Wales is a very outward-looking nation.

I'm very keen to receive requests and suggestions from Members as to how we support our work here in the flying of flags and demonstrate our solidarity beyond Wales and with international organisations and countries elsewhere. If people have views—Members have views—on how our internationalist approach to our National Assembly can be reflected in our policy on flags, then I'm very keen to hear that, both from Members here and from the Government in its own international strategy.