1. Will the Commission make a statement on plans to enable every Member to attend the Senedd estate to participate in Senedd business? OQ56865

The Commission is able to support virtual, hybrid and in-person Senedd business. This ensures the continuity of our Parliament and the ability of all Members to participate at all levels of coronavirus restrictions. Members have been able to attend the Senedd estate to participate in Senedd business since hybrid Plenary proceedings were introduced in July 2020.

Under current arrangements, the number of Members who can be physically present in the Chamber at any time has increased to 30. Members participating remotely may do so from any location, including their offices in Tŷ Hywel or in the Senedd, where I am at the moment.

Diolch, Commissioner. The fact that we're still operating in the Chamber at half capacity, I believe, is nonsensical. We expect our children to go to school and rightly so because it's harmful to keep taking them out. Thanks to a terrific vaccine programme, we have severely impacted the virus's ability to cause serious illness and death. We are all fully vaccinated, so what's the risk? We can have four people in a lift, yet this vast Chamber remains at half capacity. As both a new Member and one representing a north Wales constituency, I find it disheartening: I spent five and a half hours travelling down this week to spend half the time contributing over video link. Commissioner, will you work with the Business Committee to ensure that for those who wish it, Members can participate in Plenary and committee meetings in person?

It's anything but nonsensical to take precautionary measures where Members feel that they would benefit from those precautionary measures. The Business Committee took the decision that it would continue in a hybrid form that would enable any Member choosing to work from home, either through choice, through preference or because they are needing to self-isolate, to continue to do so, and then took the subsequent decision by majority view that it felt that, given the length of time of proceedings of the Senedd, a 1m social distance would be preferable to be retained. Therefore, 30 Members are able to contribute physically in the Chamber. It is for us as politicians who pass the laws on coronavirus to make sure at all times that how we behave as well looks at precautionary measures, and how we as Members in that Chamber are able to keep each other as safe as possible, and then keep the people we come into contact with as safe as possible also. But we'll continue to keep these matters under review, of course, as the coronavirus situation changes and hopefully improves from where it is at the moment in Wales. 

Question 2 [OQ56882] has been withdrawn. Question 3, Joel James.