When the Welsh Government seeks to introduce an emergency Bill on the grounds that it needs to be enacted more quickly than the Senedd's usual legislative process allows, this essentially streamlines the Senedd's law-making and accountability processes. It should, therefore, only be used when there's a real and unforeseen emergency.

The Welsh Government has only used this method of legislating twice before, with the Agricultural Sector (Wales) Act 2014 and the Law Derived from the European Union (Wales) Act 2018. Arguably, their motives were political on both occasions, and this must not become the case with the Welsh Elections (Coronavirus) Bill that they're now seeking consent from the Senedd to introduce.

The Scottish General Election (Coronavirus) Bill, enabling Scottish Government Ministers to delay the Scottish general election beyond 6 May, subject to a vote of the whole Scottish Parliament, was first introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 16 November 2020. Although it passed through an accelerated timescale, Members of the Scottish Parliament still had over five weeks to consider the Bill. The proposed Welsh Government timetable for this Bill will, in contrast, give Members of the Senedd just over two weeks' scrutiny until Stage 3.

Although the pandemic crisis has been here since March 2020 and we've known the date for the next Welsh Parliament election for five years, the First Minister didn't suggest a change in regulations until November. We must therefore ask why the Welsh Government has put itself in a situation where it needs to be using such emergency procedures. Where is the foresight, when it was evident that the pandemic would still be dominating the agenda? Some might say that the drop in public confidence in the Welsh Government's handling of the pandemic may have had an influence on their motives for seeking this emergency Bill now, but I couldn't possibly comment. Whilst we will vote today to agree that the Welsh Government can introduce the Welsh Elections (Coronavirus) Bill as an emergency Bill in the Senedd, recognising the potential need for delay based on the badly deteriorating public health situation, we are only lending them our vote. However, the Welsh Government has not said what situation the pandemic needs to be in to require an election delay, and our continued support would require the Welsh Government to specify what the bar will need to be before the First Minister formally requests a delay. We also note that the Bill would include other content, and recognise that some of this has merit, including the reduction in dissolution to seven calendar days before an election. However, we're concerned that some proposed content may only be introduced as Welsh Government amendments at a later date.

We took part in the Welsh Government's elections planning group last summer, and there are a number of concerns that we still have from that planning group, including extending voting over multiple days, where voters will be disenfranchised if they thought that voting on another day for the Welsh Parliament would still enable them to vote for the police and crime commissioner; extending voting hours from 6.00 a.m. till 11:00 p.m., when it's not believed that this would improve voter turnout; and increasing the number of proxy votes, where we would not want to see any changes that would allow an individual to act as proxy for a whole household where they're not related.

Delaying the Welsh general election due to take place on 6 May would have huge ramifications, with many feeling disenfranchised, especially when the pandemic has shone such a bright light on devolved Government in Wales. Elections have taken place in a number of countries during the course of the pandemic, including the United States, Spain, France, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea. As South Korea's director general for public health policy subsequently stated, not one case related to the election was reported during the 14-day incubation period. And although Mr Trump claims that this allowed US votes to be miscounted, this is not exactly a widely held view in this place. Although the proposed Bill includes little on postal voting, we would welcome more detail on how people will be encouraged to sign up.

Considering that the Scottish parliamentary elections, mayoral elections, English council elections and police and crime commissioner elections are also due this spring, can the Minister also state whether or not there are ongoing discussions about a co-ordinated UK-wide approach to these elections? Welsh Conservatives have always maintained that the Welsh Parliament elections should take place on 6 May 2021 except in exceptional, emergency circumstances. Diolch. Thank you.