I thank Sam Rowlands very much for his contribution this afternoon, and, obviously, I would associate myself with his comments about the incredible work that we all witnessed, I think, in the counts that we attended, and the care that the people involved in those counts give to the task in hand is really testament to the importance of local democracy. And again just to say 'thank you' to everybody who stood. As Sam Rowlands says, it is an incredibly brave thing to do, especially in the climate at the moment in terms of the abuse that many people face when they do put their head above the parapet to be chosen as the person to represent their communities, but it is incredibly disappointing if you're unsuccessful. So, just a huge 'thank you' to everybody who at least gave people within communities a choice, which I think is important, and that does speak to that important point about uncontested seats.

We do know that the Electoral Reform Society Cymru research says that there were 74 seats that were uncontested this time; that's 6 per cent. It is a slight reduction on the 92 seats or 7.3 per cent at the 2017 elections, but it is still, I think, too high. It is important that people have that chance to see democracy alive within their communities and have a choice of candidates. So, I think there's work for us to do to continue to enthuse people about the potential of a role of being a councillor, because the work that we're doing with the WLGA and with One Voice Wales, actually, in terms of town and community councils, will be important.

In terms of turnout, obviously turnout is always less than you'd want it to be; you'd want to see as many people as possible turning out in these elections, because I think that, over the last couple of years especially, people have seen the real value of local government and what local government can deliver for them in their communities. So, I think that turnout will always just be there as a challenge for us as politicians, but also for our political parties as well, to see what more we can be doing to energise democracy locally and to enthuse people about becoming involved with that.

In terms of the pilots, I think it is too early to give a real flavour as to the pilots today, because it is very early on, but the Electoral Commission is required by law to evaluate those pilot schemes, and they'll be publishing their report within three months of the election. The early indications are that things ran successfully with no operational issues, but we don't know yet the figures of turnout for the pilots. In Blaenau Gwent the centrally located Ebbw Vale learning zone was used as an advanced voting station for all residents of the county, and that included students of the college, during the week leading to polling day. In Bridgend, the polling stations in certain low-turnout wards were open for advanced voting during the week leading up to polling day, and a new, advanced voting centre was created in a school for registered students at that school. And then in Caerphilly, which was the example referred to, the council offices at Ystrad Mynach were used as an advance voting centre for all residents of the county on the weekend before the polling day. And then in Torfaen the council offices in Pontypool were used as an advance voting centre for all residents of the county on the weekend before polling day as well. So, across those four pilots there were some different things that were tested, and I think it'll be interesting to compare the results of those pilots.

I'm particularly interested in terms of learning from those pilots—did they enthuse people to come out who wouldn't normally vote? Did it make voting easier, or did it just make voting more convenient for people who were already planning to come out and vote? So, that will be an interesting test of those pilots. The Electoral Commission did undertake surveys of people as they were leaving those pilot stations, so we should get quite a rich picture of who attended those stations, and why and what they felt about the experience, which will help us in developing policy for further elections.