I’m very grateful for those comments and again, starting off with our appreciation for people who do put themselves forward to these roles, I think one of the interesting things from the councillor survey was that a large proportion of those respondents said that they’d decided to put themselves forward as councillors in the first place to improve their community and to make it a better place to live. I think we have to absolutely recognise that that is people’s starting point, and then when we think about the abuse that we’ve talked about in the Chamber that people receive for having put themselves forward from such a good place, I think that’s really concerning.

Another reason that came up strongly as well through the survey as to why people put themselves forward was so that they could help people and give local people a voice, and again, I think that those things are absolutely so commendable. The majority of respondents to the survey also said—so this is 91 per cent—that the most important role of a councillor was to represent the views and the needs of local residents, and also, then, followed by supporting the local community and working with residents to address local issues. So, I think that we can take a lot of heart from the kind of quality and calibre of people who are putting themselves forward for these roles.

I think that one thing that was also interesting from the survey was that around half, actually, once they were in the role, felt that they had less influence and opportunity to change things than they’d initially imagined that they would when they entered their role, and it was only around a third who thought that they did have the level of influence that they expected. So, I think that that was something interesting for us to reflect on as well.

I am really heartened that 80 per cent of councillors say that they would recommend to others that they also put themselves forward as councillors. Only 6 per cent said they wouldn’t recommend it as a role, which I think is really positive. But, the points that were made about remuneration were really important. We looked very closely at this, and we know that, actually, particularly in the town and community council sector, there’s a real reluctance to claim any of the money that is available and is rightly there to be claimed to support people to undertake their roles. The majority of principal councillors were aware that they could claim for a basic salary to carry out their duties, and they had claimed their salary in full. Only around one in five of them said that they’d claimed full reimbursement for travel and subsistence costs. Again, there is potentially a worry about what the public might perceive if you’re claiming travel and subsistence costs, but these are costs that are available to people in jobs in all kinds of walks of life, but I think that, again, perhaps councillors feel that they’re held to different and higher standards than others. So, again, that’s something I think that we need to be looking at in terms of how we support councillors to claim what they’re absolutely entitled to to support them to do their particular roles.

Once we’ve finalised the details, I think perhaps I’ll publish a written statement to give colleagues the terms of reference for the work that we’re doing on democratic health, and also more information about the membership of the group that will be supporting that work, because I think that will be really helpful for colleagues. And then, it is part of a wider piece of work that we are doing to support town and community councils in particular. I know that my friend has lots of interest in this particular field, and I always prepare myself for the very latest when I come to Minister's questions, just in case it appears that week. But I know that we’ve had lots of exchanges on it, and he will know that the work that we’ve been doing in terms of the finance and governance toolkit for town and community councils has been really important in terms of ensuring that the members of that council and the clerk have the kinds of tools that they need to be able to exercise their responsibilities effectively. That was co-developed with One Voice Wales and also the Society of Local Council Clerks, and also has the support of Audit Wales. So, that’s been a really important and recent intervention, as has the support that we've given for clerks to undertake the certificate in local council administration qualification. We provide the full cost for them to do that, and that's important, because that is one of the things that we require for town and community councils to exercise the general power of competence, which, again, I think could be a real game changer in terms of supporting some town and community councils to really deliver to the maximum for their communities.

Again, we've provided additional support for training for councillors in that sector and the support now of the chief digital officer, who is working with town and community councils to maximise their use of technology in this space as well. So, there is a lot of really good work going on at the moment in that sector, but I absolutely recognise the point that has been made to me a number of times that this sector is so diverse and we have some absolutely incredible town and community councils that are really engaged, but then others that need to learn and look to those that are doing exceptionally well.