I think that we did make good progress through the local government and elections Act in terms of flexibility. That did remove some of those barriers by introducing the ability to have those hybrid meetings, which we know have been really important for people who do have caring responsibilities, family responsibilities, employment commitments that mean that the times at which they're available are more limited. Small business owners as well find it a very useful tool.

I do agree that we should expect the same behaviour of people within the virtual environment as we do within real life, and that's certainly something that we've adopted here in the Senedd. I think that we have a good model in terms of how we approach and treat people equally, whether or not they're here in person. And just to recognise as well that those formal set meetings of committees, of full council, those meetings of our town and community councils, are absolutely critically important, but they are still only part of the job that councillors do. I know that many councillors pride themselves about the way in which they're out in their communities—every day, often—having those face-to-face contacts with people. So, I think that there are still ways to maintain that face-to-face contact, even when meeting in a hybrid environment. But if there's more advice and guidance that we're able to provide, then we will certainly look to do that.

I think the point about engaging with employers is really well made. I wrote to the leaders of all of our public sector organisations fairly recently, highlighting the importance of councillors and the roles that they play within our communities, and also asking them to consider ways in which they could support their employees to become councillors, and setting out the benefits, potentially, to the organisation of having councillors working there as well. But I think there's probably more that we can do. I have regular meetings through various different forums with the Welsh Retail Consortium, with the CBI and the FSB, and I think that there are opportunities there for me to be promoting to them the importance of supporting people to become councillors. So, I'll certainly take that as an action from our discussions in the Chamber this afternoon.

The points about abuse, I think, are really important. We did find in the councillor survey that this was something that many councillors were incredibly concerned about and had experienced either themselves or had seen, and they echoed the points that you've made, really, in terms of it potentially putting people off. I think that's why the work that we're doing through the good councillor's guide is so important, but then also the work that the WLGA leads as well, in terms of the Debate Not Hate work that it has done. That really was about trying to foster the correct kind of culture and environment within the local government setting as well. But I think that the work that we've done through the survey has helped us understanding bullying better, and disrespectful cultures better, so I think that the work that we'll continue to do with the WLGA, and of course with One Voice Wales, which is doing great work in this space, will be increasingly important in the future as well.

The public expectations of councillors are just huge—62 per cent of people thinking that their councillors will be available to them 24/7 is amazing. The fact that so many councillors—almost two thirds of them—are available 24/7 to their constituents speaks to the amount of commitment that people have to this role, but also, I think, is in danger of putting people off and being, perhaps, overly burdensome to some good councillors who might decide that it's not something that they want to take forward for the longer term. So, I think there's a lot for us in the survey to consider in that space as well.

The general point about ensuring that councillors have the right guidance, I think, is important. We're consulting on whether or not there should be mandatory training for councillors, given what councillors have told us about the fact that they would often, especially at town and community councils, value training and guidance, particularly in the areas of equality. I think that's important. Potentially, we could be linking up these various things about helping people understand the expectations of them and what's reasonable when they start these roles, but then also what constitutes a healthy democratic culture within organisations as well. So, I think the survey has really helped us sharpen our thinking, really, about the things that we need to be working on alongside and with our colleagues.