6. Debate on the Report of the Special Purpose Committee on Senedd Reform — Reforming our Senedd: A stronger voice for the people of Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:28 pm on 8 June 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Rhys ab Owen Rhys ab Owen Plaid Cymru 4:28, 8 June 2022

Or let me put it in a different way. There are over twice as many Tory MPs without confidence in the Prime Minister than there are of Senedd Members sitting here.

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd never refers to the devolution settlement in Wales because its been anything but settled. We've had at least four different versions. There are only two constants in the history of Welsh devolution. One is sitting next to me: the continued presence of four of my esteemed colleagues. Llywydd, if you'd served in each iteration of the Icelandic Parliament, you'd be over 1,000 years old by now. The other constant, of course, is the Senedd size. Despite the development from a glorified local government into today's modern Parliament, we have seen the Senedd remain exactly the same size. I could bring all the reports that Huw Irranca-Davies mentioned to this Siambr that have demonstrated the need for more Members, for proper scrutiny, but I wouldn't be able to carry them all in, they'd be too heavy for me. But they all agree that a larger Senedd is necessary to make life more difficult for people on those benches—to scrutinise the Welsh Government more effectively and more efficiently.

Now, some people have criticised my party that these proposals do not go far enough, and they are right—they don't go far enough. We would prefer a single transferrable vote system. However, as Huw Irranca-Davies said—[Interruption.] No, I won't take an intervention; you'll have plenty of time to talk. As Huw Irranca-Davies said, this is work in progress, as the story of Welsh devolution has been from the beginning. 

The ability of the closed list system to ensure gender equality is an excellent step forward. Our Senedd was the first legislature in the world to have gender parity and I look forward to that happening again in the next Senedd. And I hear the Conservatives talking against gender quotas—looking at those benches, I wonder why they are against gender quotas. And whilst the reforms may not go as far as we would like, sometimes, one needs to compromise to move things forward. If Members—well, some of us who can remember; maybe Luke Fletcher can't remember—cast their minds back to 1997, Plaid Cymru wanted to go much further than the proposals put forward by the New Labour Government, but we were willing to compromise, because we had to acknowledge that the people of Wales had voted for four Plaid MPs rather than the 40—Alun Davies was not successful for us in Cynon Valley in that election. [Laughter.]