Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 9 November 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:06, 9 November 2021

I thank Adam Price for that. Could I begin by saying that I think that successive tests of public opinion carried out annually by Aberystwyth University show that the Welsh public holds this institution in a different place in their minds than they do Westminster? As I look around the Chamber, I see people who work very hard on behalf of their constituents, who have no other jobs that they do at the same time and where people discharge their responsibilities with a genuine sense of integrity and with the public interest at heart. And I think that is true in all parts of this Chamber. Is there more that we can do to make sure that we sustain that reputation, that we make sure that people in Wales go on having confidence that what happens in their name, in their Senedd, is conducted in a way that they would be willing to regard as consistent with the standards that they think would be right? Well, of course, if there are—and I'm interested in the reports of the Nolan review—more things that we can do to make sure that we continue to secure that reputation, then of course I think we should do them. But I think that we should have some confidence that the way in which successive terms post devolution have been conducted gives us a different platform and a different reputation in the minds of the Welsh public. We should jealously guard that and go on doing things to make sure we continue to secure it into the future.