3. Will the Commission provide an update on the provision of ICT for Members in the Chamber? OQ58669

The use of IT by Members has transformed since the beginning of the pandemic. The Commission has continued to drive the improvements needed to accommodate different working practices. The introduction of Zoom and a web-based voting app, alongside improvements to audiovisual broadcasting and interpretation technologies, allow Members to effectively participate in Plenary, irrespective of whether they are physically present in the Chamber or choose to attend remotely.

I'm grateful to the Presiding Officer for that. Presiding Officer, I want you to rip out these grotesque computers that we have placed in front of us. They are completely inappropriate for a debating Chamber; they were designed at a time before we had iPads and before we had the ability to communicate in the way that we can. It's a twentieth-century response to a need that doesn't exist in the twenty-first century. This should be a debating Chamber where we discuss what matters to the people of Wales, and where we listen to each other, no matter what's being said, and not simply carry on answering e-mails, which we could do in any other way, at any other time. This place has to be the cockpit of the nation, the fulcrum of our public debate, and not a call centre.

Well, I don't agree with the florid language used by the Member, but I can see that a time will come when these exact static computers that we currently have in front of us will no longer be useful. I've been looking around me as you were asking your question. Of the three Members closest to me, I can see that one is looking at the papers in front of him, one is looking at the computer screen in front of her, and another is looking at the phone that he has. I'm also a mobile phone user within this Chamber. So, Members make use of various media in looking at the work in front of them, contacting constituents even when they're here, or participating in proceedings. My view is that it doesn't matter what computer you have in front of you, or if you don't have a computer at all; the debate is interesting and lively when Members contribute in a lively and interesting way, and that draws the attention of fellow Members, just like your question has just sent virtually everyone around us to look up from their computer screens very quickly, because Alun Davies was saying something interesting in a contentious way. So, I would say that it's not the fault of the computers; let the Members make the discussion within this Chamber interesting and challenging, and the equipment will follow that, and they will be here in the twenty-first century, just as my phone is in front of me now.