3. What work is the Commission undertaking to engage with 16 and 17-year-olds about the work of the Senedd, given their recent enfranchisement? OQ57068

Thank you for the question. Engaging with young people continues to be a priority for us in the sixth Senedd. Following on from our efforts to encourage young people aged 16 and 17 years of age to vote in the Senedd election in May, officials are continuing to engage with various academic and civic groups to better assess the effectiveness of the campaign. There will be a report from that assessment available to us very soon.

We will be holding our second set of Welsh Youth Parliament elections in November 2021, where 285 young people will be standing for election. And may I encourage every Member of the Senedd to look at which young people have submitted their names in their constituencies and regions, and to encourage young people in those constituencies and regions to take part in the election, which will begin on 1 November and will run until 22 November?

Diolch, Llywydd. The connection here is absolutely clear, because I wanted to ask about the Welsh Youth Parliament, which, as we know, was formed in 2018 and I'm sure we've all loved watching its development as a platform for young people to have their voices heard. And, yes, I would like to add to your encouragement to ensure that Members of the Senedd do try to encourage young people to engage in the elections for the youth parliament. I'm also aware of the efforts of the Senedd Commission in attempting to increase public engagement with young people in particular. In that spirit, would you be able to provide an update, please, on the work of the communications and engagement directorate in their engagement with young people in particular? Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Of course, the nature of that work of engaging with young people has changed significantly during the past 18 months, with less emphasis, of course, on visits and direct discussions and visits to the Senedd, and a greater emphasis—almost solely, in fact—on virtual contact. And of course, that has enabled even more young people to have that experience of learning about our work as a Senedd through that virtual engagement without having to travel down to Cardiff to visit the Senedd directly. But as I said in response to Carolyn Thomas, there is value, of course, once we are in a position to do so, in offering both methods of engaging with our young people; doing that virtually for an increasing number of young people, but also offering the resources that we have in a visit to the national Senedd here. Both aspects of engagement with young people are needed.

It's very encouraging to see so many people who want to participate in the Welsh Youth Parliament, and it's clear that they have a great interest in a number of issues such as the climate emergency and issues around social justice. It was a little disappointing in terms of the number that registered to vote at 16 and 17 years old, and also the numbers were very inconsistent. For example, Cardiff was below 35 per cent whilst—I'm sure you'll be very pleased to hear this, Llywydd—Ceredigion was among the highest with 63 per cent. But what work is the Commission doing to target those local authorities where voter registration was low among young people to ensure that these young people do feel part of Welsh democracy and do register for local and Senedd elections in the future?

It is true to say that those levels of registration to vote leading up to the elections in May were diverse, and we need to learn lessons in terms of why that did happen, and how we can improve the promotion of registration for the elections in 2026. As I said in response to an earlier question, there is work to be done by various academic institutions and public organisations, and that work is being done to assess the success and engagement of young people with that election this year. And there will be lessons, then, for us emanating from that assessment, I'm sure, for coming years, particularly on the point that you make about the variation in that level of registration. Then there will be a report on that assessment that will be published in the coming weeks, and so we will be able to see what the analysis is of these areas in that report. We can discuss further, then, how we can improve the situation that we faced in May of this year, remembering, of course, that that election and our engagement with young people had been affected so much by the pandemic and the inability to discuss face to face with young people in their schools and colleges.

Question 4 is to be answered by Joyce Watson. Jack Sargeant.