I welcome the opportunity to bring forward the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 (Consequential Amendments) (Job-sharing and Assistants to the Executive) Regulations 2022 today. These regulations make provision to ensure the arrangements in respect of job sharing apply as intended when the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 was made. Fundamental to executive job-sharing arrangements is that members who share the same executive office have one vote between them and together count as one member when determining whether a meeting is quorate. These regulations are therefore required to ensure consistency with this principle in relation to democratic services committees, standards committees and governance and audit committees. 

The 2021 Act also makes provision for the appointment of members to assist the executive in carrying out its functions. These assistants are not members of the executive. The Act makes it clear that, for the purposes of allocating the one seat available to the executive on both the governance and audit committee or democratic services committee, one assistant to the executive or one member of the executive may be appointed, not both. These regulations are required to ensure consistency of arrangements in respect of a local authority's standards committee. I ask Members to approve these regulations today.