5. Will the Commission make a statement on its ability to reopen the Welsh Parliament estate? OQ55378

In planning to reopen the estate in line with the easing of the lockdown rules, the Commission has undertaken comprehensive risk assessment and is following Welsh Government guidance for employers in order to implement safe arrangements. On 29 June, the Business Committee agreed that the Senedd will trial hybrid Plenary meetings on 8 and 15 July. Under this model, which maintains the 2m social distancing rules, up to 20 Members can participate from the Siambr while other Members participate virtually.  

Thank you, Presiding Officer, for that answer. I, too, would like to put on record my thanks to the Commission staff and everyone who has obviously helped us, as Members, over the course of the last 12 weeks or more. But, I do think that it's a matter of urgency now that the Assembly parliamentary estate is reopened—in safe conditions, I might add—and I was pleased to hear that modelling work has gone on to that effect.

Can you confirm when the Commission will move from its current planning, of only 10 per cent of staff or Members returning to the estate, to a more normal figure—like we have in the education system—of 30 per cent, as I believe that is the Public Health Wales figure that can be used as a benchmark for return to work? And, if it does prove impossible to adapt some of the parliamentary estate, is the Commission actively looking, a bit like the Dublin Parliament has, at locating other facilities where greater engagement of Members can be achieved in a physical presence?   

Well, as I said in my previous answer to Janet Finch-Sanders, the general guidance is that people should work from home where they are able to do so. The very vast majority of Commission staff and elected Members' staff have been able to work from home effectively and continue to do so. We work as a Commission in tandem with the general guidance of the Welsh Government at this point. Therefore, with that guidance still in place, then the vast majority of our staff will continue to work from home until that is done.

But, we are, as I said, planning for the return of staff for the purposes of next week's hybrid Plenary. Then, we can accommodate up to 10 per cent of staff and Members to put that into operation. That decision on 10 per cent was taken by the Commission in its last meeting. As we've done all along, we will review the experiences that we have from week to week, and adjust as we go along.

In terms of the issue that we are currently bound by the 2m distancing legislation in Wales and therefore in our Chamber, we cannot accommodate more than a third of our Members—up to 20 Members—in the Chamber at any one point in time. We will learn from the experiences of the next few weeks as to how the hybrid Chamber and Zoom meetings work, and then we will reflect on those to see how we develop our work for the autumn term.

As it's dawning on all of us, we may well be subject to COVID regulations for the medium term. Therefore, in addition to short-term adjustments that we've done over the past few weeks, as both a Business Committee and as a Commission, we have to plan for a medium-term solution, and we will look at all ways of working into the future to ensure that the most effective way of undertaking our work is done on behalf of the people of Wales.

Question 6 is Huw Irranca-Davies, but I am aware that he's having some technical problems. I just wonder whether IT have managed to sort that out for him. No, it doesn't look like it, so—

Dirprwy Lywydd, he makes the case for us that Zoom meetings can be very, very effective, but when the technology lets us down then we're all let down by it.

Yes, I think so. So, I think we can transfer that, perhaps, for a written answer to Huw Irranca-Davies. I can't see that he's managed to jump back in. No, okay, so we'll move on. Thank you very much.