8. Plaid Cymru Debate: The UK Government's Elections Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:48 pm on 26 January 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Sioned Williams Sioned Williams Plaid Cymru 5:48, 26 January 2022

(Translated)

We cannot on the one hand say that we support the rights of groups such as trans and non-binary people in policy areas such as health and education, but then not allowing them to express their democratic views.

This Bill will also have a disproportionate impact on young people, as we've already heard. All of our efforts here to ensure that young people engage with the democratic process through expanding the franchise to those of 16 and 17 years old by establishing our own Youth Parliament, through the excellent work that the Senedd does in engaging with schools and colleges is all proof of the fact that we understand that we need to nurture and increase the number of young people that are participating in our electoral process, and we heard the statistics from Heledd Fychan that prove this. The ID requirements will do exactly the opposite. One example of how it will do this is that travel cards for those over 60 years of age will be accepted as a legal form of photo ID that can be used to vote, but identity cards for students or travel cards for young people will not be accepted, and young people are far more likely to be without a passport or a driver's licence than older people. And the fact that many young adults are more likely to change address often makes it far more difficult for them to keep their ID documents up to date and therefore acceptable for use in voting.