First of all, I'd like to thank the elections planning group for its work. My party was pleased to participate in that work. Despite some of the headlines around this group, it's important to bear in mind that the work of the group, and many of the recommendations in the report that's already been published focus mainly on the arrangements that should be put in place in order to ensure that the election can take place safely.

I do have to say that it's difficult to anticipate a situation where Senedd elections would have to be postponed. Elections around the world have taken place from Belarus to the Basque Country, from Serbia to Singapore, and also in the United States most recently, where we were reminded in powerful terms of the importance of free elections and the power of people to raise their voice and use their vote, as the people of the United States did in choosing a new direction through the dark days of the pandemic. Having said that, as the experience of the past few months has demonstrated to us we can't take anything for granted. 

Therefore, it is reasonable that we should have the ability in Wales to respond to all scenarios that may face us, never mind how unlikely that may be now. The Ministers of Westminster already have those powers, and they were used in the case of local elections in England and in police and crime commissioner elections, which should have taken place in May of this year. And on that note, of course, it is disappointing, but not unexpected perhaps, to see that the UK Government has approached this issue in a non-compliant way, with Minister Chloe Smith writing to all returning officers whilst this planning group continued to meet—with the Conservative Party part of those discussions—to state that police and crime commissioners in Wales would proceed, come what way, without fully recognising the significance of the fact that we had planned a Welsh general election for next year, with the Police and Crime Committee's elections happening to fall on the same date because of the postponement this year. It appears that the UK Government's thinking is entirely different. Following the reluctance of the UK Government to consider any sort of change to police and crime commissioner elections, I understand that that had restricted the possible options considered by the group for introducing early-voting centres, extending the number of days where votes could take place, to facilitate voting for vulnerable groups, which is an idea that election administrators were fully supportive of. So, what's the Government's intention or the Government's view in terms of progressing this in light of the opposition of the UK Government in terms of doing the same with police and crime commissioners elections?

I would like to hear from the First Minister on the possible impact of disagreement between the UK and Welsh Governments on proxy voting. Practically, I think the people of Wales will want us to ensure as much consistency as possible between the two elections, and that it should be as easy possible for people to participate, wherever the power for the franchise lies at the end of the day. It would be very strange, for example, if a proxy could be exercised on behalf of four or five people in Senedd elections, but only for two people in the police and crime commissioner elections.

To conclude, the First Minister mentioned the possibility of legislation in January, which would extend the powers of the Llywydd to postpone the date of Senedd elections from the current month to up to six months. The Scottish Government has introduced similar legislation in the Scottish Parliament. It's appropriate that the Llywydd should continue to hold this power, representing the impartial nature of the function, but it's important that the Senedd has opportunity to fully scrutinise proposed legislation, so the sooner it's introduced to the Senedd, the better, in draft form. Scottish legislation includes provision for postal voting only in order to re-stage an election if the election in May had to be postponed. The report of the group in Wales didn't recommend this, so can the First Minister confirm whether similar provisions will appear in the Welsh Government's draft legislation? I would agree with the suggestion that a two-thirds majority should be required to pass any change, safeguarding the principle that there should be broad-ranging support beyond the party of Government in making any changes to electoral arrangements.