6. What assessment has the Minister made of the arrangements for next year's local elections to ensure that they are run effectively? OQ57188

Returning officers and the Electoral Commission have the statutory responsibilities to ensure all elections run effectively. The Welsh Government is working with both returning officers and the commission to support the implementation of changes to the legislative framework for local elections and the delivery of our electoral innovations programme.

Diolch yn fawr, Weinidog. Effectively run elections are the cornerstone of any good democracy, and it's important that voters feel that voting is accessible to them. On polling day for the Senedd earlier this year, understandably because of COVID regulations, we had to vote in a different way. But one side effect of that were long queues at many polling stations, some up to two hours, and I know of one polling station in Cardiff West that was still taking votes at 11.30 at night. Naturally, some people turned away.

Last week, we discussed voting inclusion, the inclusion of as many voters as we can in this Senedd. Having to queue for so long, especially if there's adverse weather, especially if it's late at night, will mean that voting isn't accessible for all people, really, but especially the elderly, especially people with young children, especially people living with disabilities. With the possibility of COVID regulations still being in place at next year's May elections, what discussions have you had with local authorities to ensure that voting is as accessible as possible and that we don't see a repeat of the long queues that we saw in the May Senedd elections? Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you for raising this, and clearly it's an important issue that will need to be addressed as we move towards the local government elections next May. We're working closely to try and improve the uptake of postal votes, which is a simple way that people can avoid the queues, but also to try and ensure that more postal votes are done correctly the first time. So, we're looking at the design of those postal ballots because we know that there are errors made and people need to feel confident that they've done the form correctly and they haven't been confused by it. The forms do ask for a lot of information, so we've done some analysis, and around half of all invalid postal votes involve an issue with the elector's date of birth, so that's the primary focus of our work in terms of amending those forms to try and design out those kind of issues.

So, that's part of it, but clearly, there will be long discussions with electoral returning officers as we start to get into the detailed planning, and part of that will obviously be those discussions about avoiding those long queues to which you referred.

Can I thank Rhys ab Owen for tabling this important question, and also declare my interest as a serving councillor on Bridgend County Borough Council? I note with interest the Welsh Government plans to pilot new measures such as early voting in certain wards in Bridgend council ahead of next year's local government elections, the justification for which being that this will happen in the wards that had the lowest historical turnouts. However, in Bridgend County Borough Council, the vision doesn't quite match the reality, as I note that Coychurch, which was the ward with the joint highest turnout at the last election in the whole of the county, is one of the areas included in this early voting pilot, which completely contradicts the stated intention. So, is it not therefore apparent, Minister, that these so-called pilots are being introduced not to benefit increased voter participation in these elections, but instead being conducted to enhance the electoral prospects of the Labour Party?

I suggest that the Conservative Member doesn't judge this Government by his own Government's standards. We are very interested in supporting everybody who has the right to vote to get out there and do it, and they will obviously vote for who they choose. We've taken action right across Wales, including in constituencies that are currently represented by Conservative Members, to introduce new democratic engagement officers. So, they're across Wales, and they mean that now, for the first time, we've got a network of officers who are responsible for identifying barriers to registration, and they're working collaboratively with local partners to overcome them. We've also set up the local authority registration officer network to bring those individuals funded through the programme together to share knowledge and ideas as to how to get as many people as possible registered to vote, and to make it as easy as possible to cast that vote. That's happening right across Wales.