8. What are the Welsh Government's plans in relation to the use of voter identification in Wales? OQ57067

I thank Jane Dodds for her question. The Welsh Government is committed to inclusive and accessible voting in Senedd and local government elections, and wants to encourage participation rather than to restrict it. We will therefore not be introducing voter ID measures in Wales for devolved elections.

Thank you so much, Counsel General, I'm very pleased to hear that because I, like you, am incredibly concerned at the Conservative Government's proposals in Westminster to pursue voter identification for reserved elections. Whilst I'm not going to rehearse the arguments for and against today, I remain totally opposed to these discriminatory measures. What I am concerned about, though, is that in a Welsh context these measures may create confusion about the need to carry photo ID to the polling stations for all elections in the United Kingdom, despite devolved and local elections in Wales retaining the much fairer system. So, could I ask you what plans the Welsh Government intends to put in place to mitigate the potential public confusion on this issue? Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Thank you. I've already indicated, I think, in the past the need for and my desire for and belief that we will have an electoral reform Bill within the term of this Senedd, the purpose of which will be to modernise our electoral system to improve accessibility, to learn from the lessons that exist internationally that can provide access to people, whether it be people with disability or in general, that reflects the modern society we live in.

I have to say that I have not seen any substantive evidential basis that would justify the introduction of ID cards. I believe it is an idea that has come from America. It is part of an agenda that is about restricting accessibility of voting for some of the poorer and most vulnerable within our communities. Now, when I say there's no evidential base, I'll give you an example from the data from the Electoral Commission: in 2019, across the UK, with the millions and millions of votes that were cast, there were a total of 595 cases of alleged electoral fraud investigated by the police. Only 142 of those were categorised under a voting category. One individual was convicted for using someone else's vote at a polling station, one individual received a caution for the same reason, and in Wales, there were 14 cases of alleged electoral fraud investigated by Welsh police forces in 2019, with only six of them relating to voting.

The Welsh Government's position is that we want to make elections as open and as accessible as possible. We want to find new ways to engage with voters to make sure they have every opportunity to participate in the democratic process, and as I've said, we intend to bring forward our own proposals for how to achieve this later in the sixth Senedd.

I thank the Counsel General.