Engagement with Children and Young People

Part of 3. Questions to the Senedd Commission – in the Senedd at 3:12 pm on 25 November 2020.

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Photo of Elin Jones Elin Jones Plaid Cymru 3:12, 25 November 2020

Well, I'm sure you'd agree with me, Janet Finch-Saunders, that, in the run-up to the election, a period now after Christmas that we all face, it's important that the sessions that the Commission holds, and that schools and others hold in schools, are politically balanced and include all political representation for that purpose. That's why the Senedd, in designing our and the Welsh Government resources available to young people, working with the Electoral Commission as well, ensure that there is a fair political balance in the debate leading up to elections. We all know as individual Members, leading up to elections, that we're very often invited into schools to hold political hustings, and we hope that that possibility will happen at a local level as well. That's a matter for the schools to initiate their own discussion on, but I do hope that schools will be in a position to do that. That may well be in a virtual context, still, by May of next year, but ensuring that our young people have all the information that they need to be able to be inspired to and practically to cast their vote in May of next year is something I think that unites us all as elected Members, present and future.