I, again, say thank you very much for arranging this sort of Assembly meeting, which I've never experienced before, especially these days when the whole country is gridlocked. I, personally, think it’s a bit ill timed to bring this local government Bill in front of one third of the Assembly.

I wish to speak on one area clearly regarding this, this afternoon. I wish to speak against the motion giving the right to vote, in devolved Welsh elections, to Welsh prisoners who are serving custodial sentences of less than four years. Prisoners convicted of crimes such as paedophilia, racially aggravated common assault and breaking sexual offence orders would be allowed to vote under this legislation, which is very strange to my thinking. It is not surprising that this proposal is not supported among the public. A person in my office put it to public opinion, and not a single person supported this view.

Also, I believe, in principle, that law makers should not be the law breakers. If we produce in society a framework of laws setting out the standard of responsibility and behaviour that we expect our citizens to abide by and maintain, by definition, also, people who have committed crimes against their fellow citizens have not met those standards. By breaking the law, they have abdicated or forfeited the right to make laws for others. There has been much discussion about prisoners' civil liberties, however, by definition, sentencing someone to a term of imprisonment involves a suspension of the right to liberty. The right to vote in elections, in a democracy, is a civil liberty, combined with others such as freedom of association, freedom of assembly and movement, and the right to stand for election. By the consequences of their action, prisoners are deprived of their very liberties. It is a choice they have made in full knowledge of what imprisonment entails. There are two aims of imprisonment: to punish and to rehabilitate. I fully support the rehabilitation of offenders. The restoration of the right to vote should be regarded as an important symbol that the individual has paid their debt to society. It is an incentive to integrate offenders back into society; this will be lost if prisoners are given the right to vote.

Presiding Officer, there are also practical reasons why this proposal will not work. They create a bureaucratic nightmare that will place an additional unnecessary burden on our prison service staff and officials, but many Welsh prisoners serve their sentences in England. There is, for example, no Welsh women prison in Wales. The Welsh Government is, therefore, proposing to allow people to vote without the privilege of accessing Welsh media coverage to inform them of the issues, of their local issues. So, people will be totally unaware of the local issues while they will be voting. Elections entail the right of electors to meet the candidates standing for elections. It is totally impractical for candidates to travel to prisons, even within Wales, to meet electors, let alone to hold hustings on their premises. The risk to security is also obvious.

Presiding Officer, I repeat: there is no public support for this proposal. I urge the Assembly to assert the right of the public over the right of the criminal and reject this motion today. Thank you.