Local Government and Housing Committee

We've reached item 3 on the agenda today, and our second evidence session. I'm very pleased to welcome, joining us here at the Senedd, Jess Blair, director of the Electoral Reform Society Cymru, and her colleague Dr Nia Thomas, who deals with research and campaigns, and, joining us virtually, Dr Stefanie Reher of the University of Strathclyde. Welcome to you all. Perhaps I might begin with some initial questions, and firstly, whether there is sufficient progress in improving the diversity of candidates and elected councillors in Wales.

First of all, thanks for having us today. It's really great to be here. The best data we have—we can come on to data later, I'm sure, but it's heavily caveated—suggests that the percentage of female candidates rose from 29.7 per cent in 2017 to 33.6 per cent in 2022. In terms of how that related to councillor diversity post election, the number of female councillors has increased from 28 per cent in 2017 to 36 per cent in 2022, but we feel that that indicates a really slow rate of progress, and we're also particularly concerned about representation from people with other protected characteristics, which there is limited data on, but we imagine is quite poor.

If we try and project that level of increase forward, we're not looking at gender parity until roughly the middle of the century for candidates, which is still quite a long time away, really, isn't it?

Stefanie, did you want to add anything to that?

Just very briefly, my expertise is particularly on disabled people in politics, and looking at the statistics there from the candidate survey, the questions have changed over the years from one survey to another, so it's actually really difficult to draw any conclusions about the development of the representation of disabled people in local councils amongst the candidates. It looks like the representation is below what we would expect based on the general population at the moment, but the question that was asked in the last survey was rather restrictive, so it's quite difficult to really say anything about this. I would say, though, that this survey and generally surveys across the UK amongst candidates, councillors and parliamentarians are quite unique in actually including questions about disability. So, I do welcome that that data is actually available, but at the same time I agree that the data is fairly patchy. Response rates are rather low, so it is quite difficult to really say very much, especially about the smaller numbers of people with protected characteristics.

Thank you very much. The electoral system, then: to what extent do you believe it is preventing progress on diversity?

We think there is a stifling nature of the electoral system in terms of how it's preventing diversity. There's lots of different elements to this. One of them is the number of uncontested seats that we have. There were 74 uncontested seats in Wales in 2022, so that's 6 per cent of the total elected councillors; 97 per cent of these were in single-member wards. So, there's a real, heavy bias towards single-member wards there. There were no uncontested seats, in contrast, in wards with three members or higher. So, if you're looking at bigger wards, you're much, much less likely to have uncontested seats.

There's also a gender bias in those uncontested seats. So, 77 per cent of uncontested seats, with our caveated data—we're doing the best we can with trying to estimate people's gender—were held by male candidates, so 77 per cent male and 23 per cent female. So, there's a real gender bias there. Fifty-six per cent of our wards in Wales are single-member wards, and 35 per cent of all the seats are in single-member wards, so that's quite a high proportion.

Uncontested seats are one of the symptoms of first-past-the-post elections—the system where it's 'winner takes all' and people who are less known might not be willing to stand because they don't think they can get over the threshold of the person who's already there. When you move to a single transferable vote system, like in Scotland, overnight you saw every single uncontested seat eliminated. Since then, they have had a slight creep, but they're still far, far below where Wales is. So, the system change there made a massive difference to uncontested seats, which we can tell in Wales are biased by gender, at least. I would predict that in Wales a move to STV would most likely reduce that level of uncontested seats. And if we look at the legislation, then that's legislating for between three and six councillors if you move to STV at local government. And if we look at the data that we have now on uncontested seats, that would roughly say that, if you took the one- and two-member wards away, you would have no uncontested seats in Wales. So, there's that element of it.

There's also the element of—. We looked at wards where just a single gender of candidates were standing, so I guess this is about voter choice and this is about the type of people who you can vote for. Two hundred and forty-six wards—that's just under a third—had only a single gender of candidate standing, so that was either all male or all female, as estimated with our caveated data, and 83 per cent of these 246 were single-member wards. So, again, it's a heavily biased problem towards single-member wards.

There's also a significant gender bias in that, with over 200 of these wards having only male candidates, versus about 30 having female candidates, so it's, again, the same problem of lack of diversity tipping. So, again, we would predict that a move to STV and multimember wards would make a big difference to this, because 47 per cent of all single-member wards in Wales had a single-gender candidate list. This was just under 16 per cent for two-member wards and reduced again to 7 per cent for three- and four-member wards, with none in the five-member wards. So, again, if you eliminate those one- and two-member wards, based on the candidate lists for 2022, you would reduce heavily the number of single-gender wards down to about 1 per cent in Wales.

Sam.

Thanks, Chairman. It's a point I raised in the last evidence session on STV. I can understand the uncontested numbers being probably eliminated at STV, but in terms of, then, the outcomes of that, for example, in Scotland, where STV, as you mentioned, is in place, 35 per cent of councillors in Scotland are women. That percentage is 34 per cent in Wales. So, we see first-past-the-post versus STV, which has been in place for quite a while in Scotland; there doesn't seem to be any recognisable difference in terms of the outcomes of all that, so whilst there may be perhaps more difference in contested seats in terms of trying to drive diversity, it doesn't seem to have that outcome. Is that a fair comment?

I think it's important to remember that no electoral system in itself can guarantee diversity. What you can do is use an electoral system, in combination with positive action, to really drive change. I think that's where, potentially, they haven't gone far enough in Scotland. There hasn't been as much positive action, targets, in local authorities, as we have actually seen in Wales. There seems to have been a much more concerted effort here to increase at least female representation, and that's why we really do feel that, here in Wales, with a combination of changing the electoral system and the positive action we've seen being extended you would see a massive difference.

Sorry, can I just come back on that point?

Yes, sure.

But it's quite hard to see any difference at all, isn't it? So, you would have thought at least there might be 5 per cent or 10 per cent difference, but 1 per cent, I think, statistically, it is going to be very difficult to argue that's made a discernible difference. So, how can you argue that STV will make that outcome better?

I think the thing you have to consider is that you have to compare Scotland with Scotland on this; you can't take two separate countries and compare them directly necessarily, because they might have started from different starting points. So, while Wales and Scotland might not look so different compared to each other—you know, there are plenty of countries around the world that are progressing really well, especially on gender balance, but they might still look like they have terrible gender balance, but it's because they started at 2 per cent. So, you know, it's that kind of thing.

I think Jess's point about Wales is key, because—. We look at Monmouthshire. In the last elections, that really good commitment that was cross-party, that worked really well. It was technically more of a voluntary quota, I guess, if you want to categorise it, but it worked much more like a legislative gender quota, because everyone was so committed to it, and they have 50:50; they've now gone beyond 50:50. So, you can see how that positive action does make a massive difference, and that is the key. One individual element on its own will not solve the problem. So, it's about those things. If Monmouthshire hadn't done that, then we might have looked at quite a different, a lower, stat for Wales. If the Vale of Glamorgan hadn't been so positive in their action as well—more on a single-party basis there, rather than across the board—. Those things make quite big differences to, then, our overall percentage of female councillors especially.

Yes. All right. Thanks. Thanks, Chair.

So, what we take from that, then, in terms of STV? Because I think you said, Jess, didn't you, that STV perhaps might lend itself more to some of the structural requirements that would produce better diversity. Nia was taking about what's been done under first-past-the-post, which has been very effective in Monmouthshire with the right will, which, again, could be structured, I guess, rather than voluntary. So, what do we take from that in terms of whether STV really would move things forward or not?

I think where you can get to with STV is removing the uncontested seats in the single-member candidacy wards that Nia talked about earlier, and I think that's where, combined with the positive action, there would be a significant difference. If we did move to at least three-member wards, which would be a requirement under STV, there would be a significant increase in the number of female candidates, just from the 2022 data. It's really difficult to 100 per cent guarantee everything, but all the data we have suggests that that would make a difference.

Mabon.

Thank you. That new data we heard from Nia today is very, very interesting, and the suggestion from what Jess has just said is that these multimember wards are better in terms of representation, and that multimember wards with at least three members are even better. So, the suggestion is to try to shift to that. How do we then balance that with rural areas, because a multimember area with three members in somewhere like Meirionnydd or Montgomeryshire would mean a huge territory? It would have tens of square miles. How do we get that balance then?

It is a balance.

So, yes, if we're looking at the option of three to six members, I think that is—. Even three, sometimes, might create quite big areas, but there are natural communities; there's a role there for the boundary commission to maintain natural communities but keep in mind the size of the ward. Even in places like Gwynedd, if you look at the councillors and the way it's distributed, you don't need to add all the biggest wards together to make a superward that is geographically massive; there's a lot of natural communities there where you would have wards that are smaller that could join with bigger wards. That level of detail is very much for the boundary commission, rather than us, to decide, but having looked at it a little bit and tried to think about—. I come from Ynys Môn, so I can't be an expert on Gwynedd because I'm over the water, but it's—. [Laughter.] You can look at it and you can see, okay, it would increase in size, but you'd have more councillors to do the work, or more councillors sharing the work, rather. But there are lots of ways where those natural communities would not mean that the wards would be as big as if you just pick all the big ones and put them together, if that makes sense.

Okay, Mabon?

Diolch.

Joel. Joel James.

Thank you, Chair, and thanks everyone for coming in this morning. I just want to ask you a question that I asked in the previous evidence session, really. I know one of the concerns with STV is, as we mentioned, the creation of multimember districts, and that there's an element that believes that means some people are further detached from their elected representatives. I was just wondering where those with disabilities or lower socioeconomic backgrounds, as they say, come into it, because the concern I have with that then, if we're looking at creating this big geographical area, well, there'll be a difficulty there then in terms of maybe campaigning or even going around to meet the electorate, really, because I know, from my time when I was a councillor, the leaflets I paid for myself, I walked the streets delivering them, I canvassed, but that might not be possible for someone who maybe, say, is in a wheelchair or might have vision impairment, or just can't afford to do it. I just wanted to see what other people's views were on that.

Okay.

I'd say there's definitely some significant learning from Scotland on that, which I'm sure Dr Reher will come in on. So, definitely some learning from Scotland in terms of how that would work. There's also a role for an access to elected office fund, I think, to play in this, and particularly—I know we'll come on to this, but—particularly if that fund was extended to cover other candidates with other circumstances. And I think one of the things that we've really seen in Scotland, when we speak to councillors, is a lot of them, even in a larger ward shared with other councillors, will talk about their patch within that, working their existing ward and the people that they have naturally voting for them, and working as teams rather than as an individual with other members of their parties to kind of—. In one area, you say, ‘Put me first on the ballot and then put my colleague second’, in another it might be, ‘Put me second and the other person first.' So, I think there’s a lot of learning that we can take from Scotland on that and I don’t think that has been raised as a significant issue there.

Yes, it sounds like it's very rare in Scotland for someone to do the whole patch themselves, so in that sense you're not increasing the size in the same way as it looks like it is on paper for each individual candidate canvassing.

Okay, Joel? Stefanie on this, or any other matters that we've discussed on this range of issues?

Yes, in general I'd definitely agree with what's been said, that multimember districts tend to increase diversity, if we look at it internationally. Obviously, looking just at a couple of elections it's really hard to really draw any robust conclusions from that.

Now, systems like STV, where the voter has more power in determining where candidates are on the list, are generally thought to also be beneficial for under-represented groups, because they incentivise parties to present or nominate more of a range of different candidates that can appeal to different groups of voters. But, of course, that assumes that parties need to be incentivised through that. So, of course, if parties already take initiatives themselves, or even within an entire council, then that obviously could also work without having these systematic, systemic procedural incentives through the electoral system. But I guess that's not something that can really be guaranteed to happen everywhere, so these systemic changes could make that a bit more coherent across different councils as well.

So, yes, I definitely see the dilemma that was pointed out there between having multimember districts, but then having larger districts as well, and I think some really important points have been raised here already about candidates sharing districts. Definitely, the access to elected office fund can play a huge role in that—quite a bit of money that was claimed. Percentage wise—. Overall, in terms of absolute costs, it's actually not that much, but percentage wise there's a substantial amount that is claimed, for example, for transportation. So, that is something that can be solved if the resources are provided, and, again, it's not actually, in absolute amounts, all that much.

But I think it also needs a rethinking of political culture, how we canvass. So, we see a lot of creative solutions used by disabled candidates to have stationary canvassing stalls in the marketplace rather than going from door to door, having more online campaigns. Of course, it's important that that burden of coming up with these creative solutions isn't just put on candidates themselves, but that there's a wider cultural change in how we adapt the electoral process, the campaigning process and so on, but also how other types of the representation process, which I think we'll come back to later on as well, are rethought to fit the needs of different kinds of people with different backgrounds and different needs to allow them to stand.

Okay, Stefanie, thank you very much. We'll move on to Carolyn Thomas.

I don't know if this is so relevant now, is it, if we've gathered lots of data, but to what extent do you think that the local government survey continues to provide robust evidence? It sounds like there was a response of only 40 per cent from different authorities, so does it really capture—?

I think it's possibly worth saying that a lot of the data we've spoken about today is our own data. So, we've collected that. We haven't actually relied on the local government candidate survey data, because we have some quite significant concerns about its uptake in particular. So, a 19 per cent response rate from county councillors this time round isn't great. When we look at our data, we have heavily caveated our data because we have used some assumptions in terms of people's gender to go through that. However, it is very much at odds with what the candidate survey's getting, and we think that that is due to the low response rate from the candidate survey.

I was actually involved in the stakeholder group considering changes to the survey prior to the election, so can kind of speak a little bit about the difficulties with that, because at the moment the requirement for the questions to be on the face of the Act takes a lot of time to actually change those questions, and that leads to delays in the survey going out, and that's why I think the response rate was so low this time. It wasn't in nomination packs, it was digital first and I had a few councillors saying to me, 'Hang on a minute, I haven't had the survey yet—where is it?' So, we've got some quite significant concerns about that. And I think it probably is time now to look at a different way of collecting candidate surveys, probably through a compulsory method, in the absence of enacting section 106 of the Equality Act 2010, looking at what Wales has in its legislative powers to ensure that parties, or I think in a local government case, returning officers, can ensure that this data is collected as part of the fulfilment for nomination packs to ensure candidacy.

Returning officers can do that, or the legal officer can do it as well, can't they? It's local democracy, I guess—

For example, where our data differs is that the candidate survey, if you just look at county councillors who are elected, it suggests that 40 per cent are female; we're 36 per cent. It doesn't sound like a massive difference, but that does mean that it is in numbers of individual people writing things down. And so, we do think that there's potentially a bias in who those 19 per cent of people are who are filling out surveys. And if that spreads across other protected characteristics, where there are far fewer people, then that can sway the data a lot more. So, it's important for us to have that full data set so that we know the exact picture. Because, we're talking today about whether diversity has improved, but how can we ever really measure if it's improved if we don't have the full data set to be able to match?

And whether data collection on the candidate's or elected member's protected characteristics is sufficient at present, but you said you helped to form the application, or the survey.

Yes, I was involved in the question changes, essentially. So, I think there was recognition from Government that the questions in the previous survey were maybe a bit outdated now. So, for example, the 'indicating gender' question didn't include a 'non-binary' option. So, there was just some updating that needed to be done there.

Okay, and what do you think about the question earlier? I don't know if you heard, but it was on different socioeconomic backgrounds as well and experience of life, basically. I don't know if you can capture that and include that in the future.

I think that one thing that hasn't been done to date, as far as I'm aware, is actually engaging candidates on the survey and the design of that survey and thinking about what would be useful, from their view, to get across. And I think putting candidates and political parties, maybe, at the core and starting this discussion a lot earlier would help, I think, improve the questions in the survey, and working with disability organisations and just ensuring that those questions are much more robust and reflective of 2023.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you, Carolyn. Stefanie, did you want to add anything to what you said earlier?

Yes, just to very briefly add that I completely agree that the response rate needs to go up in order for us to be able to really draw any conclusions, especially about the smaller minoritised groups—groups with protected characteristics and also intersectional groups, right? So, if we see, for example, say, disabled candidates and elected members are increasing, but they're all from a particular socioeconomic strata, then that would tell us more about the barriers that exist, but, for that, obviously, these groups then become smaller and smaller, so, it becomes more and more important to really have complete data on this. Are we talking more about the candidates' survey and how to potentially improve that data later on, or—?

No, this is the place really to—

Yes. I mean, what's really important as well is to get data on candidates, obviously, and then see where there are potential inequalities and biases in terms of who then gets elected, but also who actually stands for office and gets nominated as a candidate in the first place, right? So, it's really important also to get data on people who stood for nomination, or who considered standing for office and then decided not to because of various barriers. So, it is also really important, in addition to the candidate data, to get at that data as well, and that's obviously really difficult, right? And I think that's where parties need to be involved also to get data from the start of the process, potentially party member data, to the end of the process to see where the bottlenecks are, and where the points are where potentially certain groups are being left out and aren't progressing into elected office.

Okay, Stefanie. Thank you very much. Thank you, Carolyn.

[Inaudible.] So, did the questionnaires include a bit at the bottom where you could actually put any extra information—whether you've got caring responsibilities, I don't know if that was included, or anything like that?

Caring responsibilities was included.

It was included. And, then, was there space so that they could just, if there's—? No. It was a bit prescriptive, was it?

I don't recall, but I don't think so.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Carolyn. Sam Rowlands.

Thanks, Chairman. Just to come off the back of the data piece, I was always told that you always measure what's important and, therefore, the reverse is true—you know it was important because it was being measured. The challenge that I provided to the WLGA before was, as an organisation, are they taking this issue seriously. And I think some of the reflections on the data or lack of data coming through perhaps shows that there's more work to be done. Perhaps it's a reflection of how important this issue is if they're not measuring it, in a way. And I think comments made previously as well about the inconsistency of questioning from one survey to the next is not helpful to be able to measure things appropriately. But that's just a comment from me.

My question—. You've touched on the other areas of representation that aren't perhaps receiving the attention that they need, so, for example, candidates from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. We're seeing those numbers not reflecting at all the population here in Wales. I was just wondering what you think might need to change to improve some of those numbers in that area in particular.

Overall, I think we lack the data on the number of candidates from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds standing for local elections. We'd imagine it's quite low. We are concerned about the data in the candidate survey. We wouldn't particularly rely on that. The WLGA reported, prior to the 2022 local elections, that only 1.8 per cent of councillors were from black or minority ethnic backgrounds. So, that's obviously particularly concerning and well below the Welsh population, which is 4.7 per cent. So, firstly, I think we do need to have that comprehensive data collection or monitoring in place. I think that is the first step to being able to assess where the problems are. As Stefanie pointed out, definitely with an intersectional lens is really helpful, because we actually need to really drill down on this and see where particular barriers are in place.

We'd also say that there's no silver bullet for improving representation, but parties have a massive role in improving representation of people from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background. Candidate selection is key, and we've seen in Wales examples, particularly with Senedd elections, of parties being really pragmatic in their candidate selection, ensuring that there's an increase in the number of women elected, for example. We believe that's a really good road map to follow for increasing other areas of representation.

We're also concerned about wider barriers. The Electoral Commission found that 40 per cent of candidates in the 2022 local elections experienced intimidation. We don't have that data broken down demographically, but we would imagine that that does put a lot of people off from standing for elected office. That's a much harder thing to grapple, but things like a code of conduct, parties working together to try and tackle that, could go a long way. We saw the Minister confirming in Plenary yesterday that there is code of conduct training being developed, for example, and I think addressing that political culture, in combination with parties being much more proactive about improving representation, is probably a good place to start.

Yes. Thanks. Okay. I can't see anybody else wanting to come in, Chair.

I don't know. Stefanie, did you want to add anything to what's been said?

I don't have very much to add. I agree that party action there is definitely necessary, and it's important to think about when groups—. Focusing on certain protected characteristics and how to improve their representation, then also applying that, or looking at how that can be applied to other groups as well, so that it can be a holistic approach.

Yes. Okay. Thanks, Stefanie. Sam.

Thanks, Chairman. Thank you for those responses. Just in terms of other thoughts in this space, it's been discussed about the inclusion of quotas, perhaps, and I wonder where you see that balance right between the things we've seen—as you mentioned Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan, where there's been perhaps a cultural shift there that has enabled better representation versus what might be considered to be quite a blunt tool around quotas. My particular concern, and you'll be able to perhaps address it as well, around quotas is that they may be able to identify one or two protected characteristics and ensure there's better diversity there, but there are a number of protected characteristics that are equally all-important. I'm struggling to understand how quotas will enable all the very important protected characteristics to be included. I'm wondering where you see that balance between the blunt tool of quotas versus the cultural shift we're seen in the local authorities at the moment.

Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan absolutely have to get credit for what they've done. I think it's a great example of positive action. In Monmouthshire, obviously, we saw cross-party agreement on a target of 50 per cent—that was led by the then leader Councillor Richard John, so huge kudos for the work that they did. I think it massively changed the candidate selection process, it saw a discussion of whether incumbents should stand again and has really changed the political culture there. Prior to that, they actually already had a gender-balanced cabinet, so I think that demonstrates how far increasing representation in your cabinet and your leadership positions then leads into other areas too.

The Vale of Glamorgan obviously is slightly different. That was down to what we can largely see is positive action within the local Labour Party. So, in the Vale of Glamorgan, Welsh Labour hold 25 of the 54 seats, and 72 per cent of those are held by women, so that has brought the average up, essentially, to 50 per cent.

I do agree that quotas are a blunt tool, but I think in the absence of other measures being effective, sometimes they are necessary. The success in increasing the female representation in Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan has demonstrated that positive action can work, but I don't think there's any guarantee that other council areas will necessarily follow suit. Some may look at their success and think, 'This is a great thing to follow next time around.' There's no guarantee of that. So, I think it does take leadership, but also a formal target or quota might be necessary. I do agree that they're a blunt tool, as I've said, but given where we're at at the moment, it's going to take a long time to change.

In terms of balancing quotas for some protected characteristics and not others, I know Women’s Equality Network are in your next evidence session, and they've done quite a lot of work on how many nations use quotas for female representation, but also use intersectional quotas. So, they can ensure that other protected characteristics are increased in representation too. We don't have any data on that, but I think that would be an interesting area to discuss.

Can I just comment on that point in particular? I think you're right, it could be interesting to discuss, because the gender split is generally about 50:50 in Wales, but then, there are around 21 per cent of people in Wales who are disabled, so it would be a very, very fair argument there in particular to say, 'Why shouldn't there be a quota that around 20 per cent of candidates or elected representatives should be disabled?' And lots of other protected characteristics with percentages are important to consider as well and how that feeds through. So, I'd be open to understanding how you would square that off. I'd be really interested—. I can see, sorry, Stefanie's got her hand up as well, Chair.

Yes. Stefanie.

We asked in interviews with local election candidates and national election candidates at different levels, prospective candidates, about how they felt about quotas. This was across the UK. Actually, most disabled candidates or interviewees were a bit sceptical about quotas. Now, that's in no way representative at all, I wouldn't claim that, but we did hear a lot of scepticism, and I think that's mainly connected to the fact that disabled people are so stigmatised, and that their competence and ability to do the job is often questioned. There was a sense among some interviewees that they felt that, if they were elected through quotas that that might not necessarily fight the stigma as much as if they were elected outside of quotas. Now, again, this is in no way representative, but that's the impression that we got from talking to disabled people.

Some other things that were mentioned much more often and that received a lot more support, and I think you will come on to, were things like financial support through the access to elected office fund, job sharing, remote and hybrid working, general changes in the culture of campaigning and politics more generally.

Okay. Well, thanks very much. Let's move on to job sharing, then, and hybrid working. Mabon ap Gwynfor.

Thank you, Chair. Before I go into job sharing, one thing that has struck me from the great data that has been received from ERS is that we, here, are discussing the role of political parties, but the one group that we don't represent is independents, and the data you have shared showed us that the independents group, whatever that means, has an even worse underrepresentation in terms of gender, without data on anything else. So, it's fine for us to look at the role of political parties, but independents do play an important role in local government provision, and have done historically; so how do we tackle that independent element, and ensure that people who don't wish to play a political party role can put their name forward and have that equality across the board, when it comes to the independents group?

I think, in short, it is really difficult. I don't think there's much that can be done without having formal targets to increase representation with independents, and I do wonder whether making the candidate survey compulsory will offer a bit more information on exactly who is standing as an independent in local elections in Wales. Obviously, independents have really good community links, they're often really great community champions, but I think there's a real difficulty in actually trying to improve gender representation, at the very least; not including other protected characteristics with them. And I do wonder if almost political parties have to overcompensate in local government elections for that, and that is a real challenge for political parties. I don't know if Nia's got anything to add.

It is a challenge. It's hard to think of a way that you could make the independents group act in the way that political parties can, so I think it is always going to be a challenge in that sense. We need to look at examples from other countries and think about what kind of measures might work for independents, what kind of measures might work to, as Jess said, maybe overcompensate for that. We'll just have to live with that in a lot of ways, because there's no way to get rid of independents, and we wouldn't want to, so we have to live with that system where some people aren’t attached to a party.

The only thing I might add is that campaigns like the Be a Councillor campaign obviously aren't partisan, and I think encouraging a wider group of people to stand for any political party or as independents is a good thing, so maybe increasing public awareness campaigns on the role of councillor, or the fact that you don't have to be a member of a political party to stand for a council seat, it can be just someone who is really passionate about their local community, could go some way to addressing that. But I think the effect of that would be quite limited.

Thank you. So, there's a question there about how we are in this situation, why people don't feel like they can put themselves forward, especially as independents. There's something that we should tackle, but there is no solution at the moment.

I would potentially put an argument there towards the electoral system. Because independents are often very local people with strong community links, who a lot of times get a large percentage of the vote share, if you're in a single-member ward, why would you stand against an independent who has a very large share of the vote? So, again, that issue of single-member wards, that issue of uncontested seats, are symptoms of the voting system that we currently have, and potentially other things that moving councils to STV could help solve in terms of having more positions open within a ward, so that you would allow other independents to come through and maybe get voted in as well, and have that chance.

Thank you. If I can go on to the question on job sharing, what do you think are the qualities of job sharing? Do you think that it's something that's beneficial and should be promoted further? Is it a system that currently works? Do we have data on this? What's your opinion on that?

We've been through and collated some data on job sharing currently, so we know there was job sharing in Swansea council in the last term. It does appear that that idea of job sharing in cabinet positions has spread to a few other councils. Monmouthshire County Council had its first-ever job share in this term between two individuals, although that now has ceased—it was in place for a year, but one of the cabinet members in the job share has now stood down from the cabinet. We also saw Powys have its first job share, and again, another job share in Swansea. I'd be happy to share more data on which positions those exactly were and who they were. So, we were three job shares across Wales, now we're down to two, so, we're looking at 1.6 per cent of the 190 cabinet positions when it was three, and then this year, 1.1 per cent. So, while we can see that it's potentially spreading geographically slightly, it's still a very, very minority number of cabinet positions that are in job share.

Nia, just on that point, I know Jayne Bryant and I, both as Newport representatives, know that there's a cabinet job share at Newport City Council, and we wonder whether—

And deputy leader at Flintshire.

It's really hard to get the data. One of the things is that, for example, with Monmouthshire now, if you looked at the website, you would never have known that there was a job share until you find a newspaper article about it, because cabinets are not archived ever. You have to go and look at things and then as soon as they change, it's like they never existed. So, I think that's another thing, again, being someone who loves a bit of data—we need to collect this data so that we can make sure that we're learning from it. So, yes, it sounds like it's a little bit wider than what my delvings first indicated, but that would still put it at under 2 per cent easily of—

The deputy leader of Flintshire is a job share between a male and a female.

But in terms of total cabinet positions across Wales, we're still looking at not that many. I think it's really great that it's moved further geographically—that's really nice to see. Hopefully that's something that can be built on, but I think it needs lots of promotion, because it's definitely not the status quo, is it? And we need to have people who are promoting it, who are trying to push it towards that status quo, so that asking to do a cabinet position as a job share or not as a job share is equal in terms of how it's perceived or how it's seen.

I am very keen to follow up on that, but I'm also keen to hear what Stefanie has to say on job share, because she did touch on this earlier in the context of people with disabilities. So, does Stefanie have an opinion on that?

From our interviews and observing different groups of disabled people who are considering standing for office or are elected representatives, that's one of the things that always comes up, even unprompted. So, that seems to be one of the things that could really help disabled people get into elected office, especially, of course, people with energy-limiting conditions. But also, disabled people are likely to also be a carer, for instance, for other disabled people. And there, we have that link to other people with caring responsibilities for whom job sharing is something that could eliminate that barrier of the time that needs to be spent in that full-time job whilst also having other responsibilities. I'm sure that it would be welcomed by other groups of people as well, but I think it's specifically disabled people who have been pushing for that, and people with caring responsibilities, especially women as well.

Could I ask, following up on that—? You mentioned Newport, Monmouthshire, Flintshire, Swansea—that there are about four or five examples of job sharing at cabinet level. Has any kind of study been done, talking to those individuals about whether it worked, and talking to the cabinet, with council leaders, to see if it had worked? Do we have any kind of inquiry into that?

We've got really limited data on that, but we did a report in 2017 called 'New Voices', where we used a combination of research approaches that included interviewing members of elected office. And one of the people who we interviewed was a councillor who was in a job share in Swansea and just talked about the advantages that that had given her. I think in particular she raised that it was easier in terms of caring responsibilities—it was just easier to balance other work as well. So, it's really limited, almost anecdotal, data, but we can certainly send you that interview if that would be of use.

Thank you, I think we would appreciate that.

If you could send that to the committee, that would be great.

I think, given the uptake in terms of different geographic areas now, it would be worth while also maybe doing a bit of research in terms of asking those people about how the job shares are working for them, because it's great to hear that that individual found it really useful, but it's always good to have more data points to make sure that we're getting the full picture. I'm sure everyone will find it very useful, but it's a good time now to try and get some more data on it, I think.

And similarly with Stefanie. While we are hearing that people with disabilities are keen to have this, is there evidence of disabled people who have job shared, wherever they are, that shows that it has worked in local government in terms of elected members?

I'm not aware of any systematic evidence. I'm not aware of that model existing anywhere outside the UK either. But it's not something that I've looked into specifically. Generally, we know that the UK, Wales, Scotland and so on is quite ahead of most of the rest of the world, actually, when it comes to thinking about how disabled people can be better included in the political process. My hunch would be that, probably, especially when it comes to disabled members of councils and parliaments, there isn't actually very much experience, but again, I haven't looked into any of that evidence. Often, it is, like what was said before, hard to actually find that information, so maybe commissioning some research, collecting evidence and interviewing people, talking to people who have that experience and thinking through the different possibilities—. Because, of course, sharing the job of an elected member of a council or parliament comes with different challenges than with sharing an executive's job, amongst people who are elected as a sole, full-time elected representative, in terms of campaigning and so on, and how they would be on the ballot paper. That obviously comes with different challenges, but I think it's something that can definitely be addressed and overcome.

Chair, I do have a question on hybrid working. Do you want me to ask it now, or ask for written evidence?

Yes, please, Mabon.

Thank you. I just wanted to go after that quickly. We know since COVID that hybrid working has come into force. Do you think that the system works and makes it more democratic, makes it fairer and offers more opportunities for people to have that diversity of people in elected positions? Does the hybrid working system work in local government?

We don't have any data or policy on this particularly. We'd imagine that it would, but we haven't got anything to back that up. I don't know if Stefanie would have anything to offer.

I don't know of any actual systematic evidence, but again this is something that is brought up again and again by disabled representatives and aspiring representatives, people with caring responsibilities, and women in particular. There is a lot of frustration in the disabled community about the progress that was made, necessarily, during COVID, in terms of hybrid working in politics and beyond, and where we see a step back, back to 'normal' in a lot of spaces. There is a lot of frustration with the tendency to not really see the benefits that brought for a lot of people who have difficulty getting out of the house, or whose ability to be mobile varies from day to day, who need more breaks at work during the work day, who want more flexible hours and so on. There's a flexibility that brings to particular groups of people and their ability to participate in ways that they weren't able to before, or where participating before had really sometimes negative consequences on their health. So, there is a lot of frustration, and a really, really big demand for thinking about maintaining some of the remote working possibilities and obviously developing that further as well, because it's important as well that that doesn't create any inequality between people who are there in person and those who are there remotely on a more permanent basis. So, again, there may be a bit of a change in culture necessary.

Thank you, Mabon. Joel.

Thank you, Chair. Obviously, I wanted to ask about the access to the elected office fund, but I just wanted to touch upon something about hybrid working. I think it's a mixed bag from my own personal experience, because, on the one hand, as Stefanie said, it allows people who might not be able to attend a meeting in person, such as I'm doing today, but what I'm conscious of is, for example now, when we as a committee break for lunch, or grab a coffee at break, whatever, we all go together into the next room to have a chat and a catch-up, whereas, at the moment, I'm just going to be sat here on my own twiddling my thumbs, as they say. And I think we've got to be careful there, because there have been a lot of studies on social isolation, especially those with a disability, who lose out that contact, then, from a workplace environment, because a lot of their social interactions happen in work, especially if, maybe, you're coming to retirement age where your friendship circle might be your work colleagues. And then, that's an issue that I think we've got to be careful about.

But turning to access to the elected office fund, I know it's been mentioned quite a few times. I know in England and Scotland, it's been there for quite some time, but in Wales, it's only been there since, I think, 2021, since the Senedd elections. And I think there have only been about 20 or 21 applications to it since then, and only six have been successful, and I think they've all been to community councils. And I just wanted to get an idea about how widespread the knowledge is about that fund in a Wales context, and whether or not it's basically doing the job, and whether or not it should be expanded then, because we talked about encouraging more women into elected roles—whether or not that should be expanded or a similar fund for that—and I know I mentioned it earlier but people from poorer economic backgrounds, for want of a better phrase. I'm just keen to get people's views on that.

Okay. Stefanie, do you want to start us off?

Yes, so my insights are primarily from the EnAble fund in England, because together with Professor Elizabeth Evans, I wrote a report on that; we did an evaluation of the fund. What we can say in general is that the fund was really, really welcome by everyone who applied for it. The large majority of people—I think around 90 per cent—said that it was really helpful. Around 40 per cent said that it would have been really difficult for them to actually stand for office had it not been for the fund. So, just based on the evidence, it is something that is seen as extremely helpful by disabled people.

Regarding the information, I can't really judge that in the case of Wales, but it is really important that that information is spread widely. And here, there might be an issue with independent candidates, or prospective candidates as well, because a lot of information is passed through parties—which is obviously really important that they're kind of involved and invested in that as well—but we have found that it can be a little bit more difficult to reach independents.

Another issue could be the timing of the planning around the fund. So, it's really important to start planning early on, to give people enough time to actually consider standing for office. It's quite unlikely that, if it comes in quite late, someone will then actually change their mind about standing for office or not. And also to lower the burden of going through the application process, which, of course, the administrators are trying to make as simple as possible. But it also needs to be fair, there needs to be accountability, there needs to be co-ordination between the administrator of the fund, and, then, the Government.

So, it can be a bit of a burdensome process, and, I think, there, it's really important to get insights and experience from other places as well, like Scotland, for example, who have been running it kind of more consistently, and have a lot of experience in that—things like procurement and getting quotes for things, paying in advance. All of these things place additional burdens, and could potentially be made easier. That said, again, I don't know exactly how it worked in Wales, but, yes, providing that information publicly and spreading it, raising awareness, is definitely really important. And from everything we found around this research, we can really just say that it is very, very welcomed. And even if it's not that many people actually applying for it, if it helps even a few people getting into office, considering also the total costs involved, you might argue that that's worth it, and, hopefully, it will be picked up even more so in the future.

Did either Jess or Nia want to add anything on this?

I think, in terms of the promotion and stuff, we haven't got much to say on that. I think the people in the next session will be well placed to answer that section of the question. But, do you want us to talk about how it might be increased now as well?

Yes.

Okay. Also, I think Stefanie's point about even helping a few people is really important, because that then means that people see themselves represented, and that is a snowball effect then, hopefully, to more people standing, so we can't discount that, as well as it's important to go forward.

So, we obviously know that there are certain groups that, potentially, face barriers to standing. We were very pleased to see the commitment from the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution around, hopefully, legislating to keep this access to elected office fund. I think the continuity of that is really, really important, and we would like to see it expanded as well to serve other under-represented groups and assist towards costs for the specific barriers that each of those groups face. So, including, but not limited to perhaps people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, people from the LGBTQ+ community, people who have caring responsibilities, people who are on low incomes. There are lots of different people who will probably face quite a few barriers to standing for election. In fact, there's probably a very small group of people who don't face barriers to standing for election, and we should look at who they are and then work out who everyone else, almost. So, I think there's a big scope to try and increase the scope of that access to elected office fund as well. But what it's doing so far seems like it's very good work.

And, again, coming back to data, we need to know the candidate diversity to help with understanding those barriers and who is standing and who isn't standing and who's then being elected to really help bolster the arguments, I guess, for who else needs to be included in the access to elected office fund.

Okay. Thank you very much. We've only got very few minutes left, I'm afraid, so we will, briefly, I'm afraid, Jayne, move on to mentoring, and maybe write further—

Yes, absolutely. And I think, Jess, the one we'll write to you about is around abuse, and you talked about that, and touched on a bit of the cultural issues. So, we can write on that, because it is a really important subject.

Just around the mentoring schemes, really, that exist already, and how effective you think those schemes are and are they really targeted at those different under-represented groups—. As I say, I look at things and think, 'There are the councillors who are already there, all those in our local authorities who are trying to—and it's really important to retain that number, and how well we do to retain the diversity that we do have in local authorities'. But we do know that, if we take our foot off the gas, then that, sadly, goes backwards, unfortunately. But, also, we need to think about how we can attract those people into the positions as well as retaining. So, just how you think those mentoring schemes work and perhaps could work in the future.

So, we don't have a massive amount of data on this, but we have seen the establishment of the Equal Power Equal Voice mentoring scheme. I have been a mentor in that for the past two years now as a mentor with Women's Equality Network when they had their own scheme before that. And I think actually seeing this collaboration between organisations has been really positive. I was at an event in the Pierhead a few months ago, and the diversity in that group is really good to see.

We would really be keen to see data in terms of how many people from those schemes have then gone on to stand for elected office. And, actually, that is one part of it, but also mentoring people just to have a greater awareness of political life. They may be in other roles, in education or in other areas of work, and actually taking these lessons from that is a really good thing, generally. So, we're massively supportive of mentoring schemes, and really keen to see the data in terms of the actual impact of those in increasing representation in local and Senedd elections, and maybe even for the general election.

Thanks for that, Jess. Stefanie, did you want to add anything?

Yes. Just very briefly. I don't have any evidence or data or particular insights about the schemes in Wales. I will just briefly say that, internationally, it's something that's being picked up more and more, and that's seen as very promising. And, I think, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data will be really important because it will be difficult, even if we collect the quantitative data, to really get at the actual effect of those different schemes, just methodologically. It's really important also to collect interview data and see how people feel about the schemes, how useful they find them, what could be improved, and so on.

Okay, Stafanie, thank you very much, and thank you very much, Jess and Nia. You will be sent a transcript to check for factual accuracy. Diolch yn fawr. Thank you very much.

Okay, committee will break very briefly for another five minutes, Cath. Okay, thank you.

Okay. So, we reach item 4 on our agenda today on diversity in local government, and our third evidence session. I'm very pleased to welcome, joining us in person, Catherine Fookes, director of the Women’s Equality Network Wales; Natasha Davies, head of policy, public affairs and research for Chwarae Teg; Chris Dunn, chief executive officer for Diverse Cymru; Megan Thomas, policy and research officer for Disability Wales; and joining us virtually, Uzo Iwobi, founder and chief executive officer, Race Council Cymru. Welcome to you all.

Perhaps I might begin, then, with just some initial questions. Firstly, whether there is sufficient progress in improving the diversity of candidates and elected councillors in Wales.

I'd be happy to answer that—

Catherine.

—if that's okay. Bore da, pawb. No, I don't think there is sufficient progress; you won't be surprised to hear me say that. So, we did have an increase of 8 per cent in terms of the number of women councillors elected in 2022, so women now make up 36 per cent of local councillors in Wales. We're still not at 51 per cent, and we're 51 per cent of the population, so I would say progress hasn't been good. And it's even worse if you consider the diversity of the candidates; that has not really improved much at all over the last few years, and I think there's some really, really important work that needs to be done there. Some county councils have representation as low as 18 per cent women, by the way, so that's really poor. So, yes, I think we do need to do a whole lot better, and I guess that's why we're here.

Yes. Okay. Thank you, Catherine. Yes, Natasha.

To add to that, if I could—so, I think, yes, there was some progress at the last election, which was positive, but a very mixed bag. That isn't necessarily translating into an increase in women in leadership, actually. Between our 2022 state of the nation report and our 2023 state of the nation report, the number of women council leaders has actually gone down, so I think what's really important is making sure that, if we're having an increase in the proportion of women within local government, that that's resulting in an increase in leadership as well. But this does kind of get to one of the big challenges we've got, which is the data, because a lot of this is based on best estimates. From our perspective, it's often literally going through council websites and making some assumptions, quite frankly, about people's gender identity, which we shouldn't really have to be doing in 2023. And it's near impossible to get an understanding, a comprehensive understanding, at the moment, of the diversity of those women who have been elected, because the data is such a challenge.

Thank you for that. Megan.

Yes, absolutely, to especially agree with that point on data, there's very limited data about the numbers of disabled candidates who are elected and disabled candidates who are able to stand, especially if you're looking at that geographically—so, how many disabled people are able to stand in certain local authorities, of these disabled people, how many are women, how many are from minority backgrounds, how many are LGBTQ+. We don't have that depth of knowledge. From our membership and from our work, we know a lot of the struggles with diversity and that there is significant room for improvement in diversity, especially in local government. But we really need to see that broader data to understand that, so we can see the whole picture across Wales.

Okay, thank you. Uzo.

Thank you, Chair. For black, Asian and minority ethnic community members, it is even worse. Listening to just how poor the women's quota is, it's even worse for black, Asian and minority ethnic community members. We've had reports, from the brief scanning that we did across the local authorities, from grass-roots ethnic minority groups living in those areas—really disappointing. The only areas that had really high reviews in terms of numbers of people coming forward and coming through was in Cardiff. But, for example, in Swansea, you just have two black women in the council, and, for a very diverse part of Wales, you would expect so much more. And I do think that the feeling, overall, from our grass-roots communities—and we surveyed over 300 ethnic minority grass-roots people, and many of them, I would say 94 per cent of them, reported not getting through upon showing an interest, getting involved in meetings, just feeling like they were being tick-boxed. So, there is huge work to do to improve diversity in our councils. Thank you.

Thank you, Uzo. Okay. And Chris.

I'd echo the points that have been said already. I think, just picking up on what Uzo said there, that tick-box approach to diversity is still there. What we don't take into account at the moment at all is the intersectionality of people and that people aren't just necessarily one characteristic. That's even before you start to get into the conversations around the data sets and actually understanding, from our candidate population, the characteristics they represent. I think one of the key things for that is making sure that we are adjusting to people as individuals, and making sure that the support services that they get to apply, and while they're the candidates as well, is flexible enough. Because I still just think there's that assumption that people will fit into one box—if you're a disabled person, you will fit into the support network that we have available for disabled people—and, actually, that's clearly, clearly not the case. So, to try and be slightly positive, I think the intention is there—in most cases, the intention is there—but actions undoubtedly are slow.

Okay, Chris. We'll come on to some possible actions—firstly, really, the electoral system. Do any of you think that the electoral system is a real barrier to achieving greater diversity and a different system would be much better, or do you think it's not such an issue? Natasha.

I can make a start on that one. So, I guess what I'd say is that we know that, with a proportional system, it is far easier to apply positive action measures like quotas and the like. I think that's what a more proportional voting electoral system would enable the space to do. First-past-the-post causes other issues beyond just diversity issues, I think it's fair to say, particularly around uncontested seats and the like within Wales. But, from our perspective, I suppose, I wouldn't want to overstate how much of a difference just a change in the electoral system itself—. I think a switch to STV or something like that wouldn't necessarily fix the diversity issues, but it does create a space where we can make better use of positive action measures, which would then support greater diversity.

Thank you for that, Natasha. Catherine.

I think making, as it has been recently, STV a voluntary initiative to councils is difficult because I think you will—. If councils are dominated by the larger parties, they don't necessarily have an interest in agreeing to moving to STV. I think, if it was for everybody—well, they would have no choice. But I agree with Natasha that, in those proportional systems, it's much easier to put in place quotas, and I think quotas could really help us. We're really pleased as WEN Wales that Welsh Government have agreed to quotas for the Senedd for the 2026 elections as part of electoral reform, and we would like to see that looked at and put in place also for local government, because it's obvious that voluntary measures just aren't working. If you look at the differences in percentages of women councillors, there are 44 per cent of woman councillors—. Labour is leading the way with 44 per cent of elected councillors being women. You've got Plaid Cymru at 34 per cent, Conservatives at 29 per cent and the Green Party only on 25 per cent. So, it shows that voluntary measures aren't working. So, I think we do need to see some positive action and strong action, such as quotas, and that's more easily done in STV.

Okay. Thanks, Catherine. Anybody else like to add anything or say anything different? Sorry, Uzo.

Yes, Chair. Thank you so much. I was going to say that the first part of it is, in the conversations that we've had in regions of Wales, we noted very carefully that the community members who showed an interest, who stated that they had an interest in getting involved in the political process and standing for office, said they had no idea how to work their way through the current system. You have the first-line votes then you have the second-line votes—who knows what all that is? So, I think we need to do a step back of exploring how well known and how well understood is the current system, but then also exploring how can we use targets for black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to ensure—especially as you consider the Senedd reform—that there is an agreed target for ethnic minority community members per region. So, I do believe that any system that improves the ability of minoritised groups—people from protected characteristics—coming forward and participating has to be the way forward, because we have to reflect the Wales that we serve and, at the moment, that is not the case for black, Asian and minority ethnic people.

Okay. Thank you very much, Uzo. We'll move on then to Carolyn Thomas. Carolyn.

Okay. Thank you. This one's just regarding the candidate survey and data—so, the extent that the local government candidate survey continues to provide robust evidence, and whether minimum response targets should be applied. WEN Wales shares concerns currently that the response rate is low, ranging from 1 per cent to 40 per cent in different authorities. So, should it be made compulsory, do you think—I think you've mentioned that already, actually—to collect that data?

I think the fact that there is such a low response rate is problematic. I think there is some real value in the survey in terms of it asks about more than just diversity information, which is a positive; it gives you a national picture, if you can get the response rate to where it needs to be. The fact that it’s low, that fact that it varies so much, is a massive, massive problem. Making it compulsory—'How enforceable is that?', I guess, would be my question.

I think the latest report from the survey outlines a number of potential issues that factored into a low response rate that could be looked at. I think, in terms of getting an accurate picture of the diversity of candidates and elected councillors as quickly as possible, there are other ways that that can be looked at. I think there might be ways of requiring that from councils themselves, perhaps through the returning officer. I think there’s a role for political parties to be playing. In theory, there’s no reason why political parties couldn’t right now be collecting that data voluntarily, publishing that data and setting out what actions they would take to fix any identified issues. So, I think the survey itself has got some value if the response rate can be gotten to where it needs to be. I think there are other avenues, other ways, of getting up-to-date, comprehensive equality, diversity and inclusion data that allow us to really understand what’s going on.

Okay. Anybody else?

Yes, just on that, I think, if we are going to make it compulsory, we do really need to reassure people, and there needs to be that information campaign, I guess, of how this information is going to be used; equally, why diversity matters, why it's so important that we have that equal representation, and equally, I suppose, the most important bit of that is how is this information going to actually lead to any change—I think it's critical that we have that—and, equally, around the language that we use, around how the language and the data is used, how people identify, equally embedding the concept of the social model of disability in all of that, and, equally, the one thing that is missing from a lot of conversations is around unpaid carers. Actually, for many unpaid carers who aspire to be in the political world, and the political arena, it is really difficult to access.

I guess, once somebody has been actually elected, everybody's given a pack, aren't they? Everybody's got to fill in a form to apply to be a councillor, and whether it's a community councillor, usually pushed through the clerk, or other ways, I guess they could via, as you say, the returning officer, in that pack, be given a form, and the democratic officer could make sure that that is returned as well. That could be a way forward. Everybody has to fill in a declaration of interests as well, don't they? So, maybe it could be done at the same time.

I've had a thought, if I may, Chair. So, I do think the survey should be made compulsory, and I feel that one way of doing that—. We also, at WEN Wales, think we need to have some mandatory training around equality for all councillors when they get elected, because there is such a great range of knowledge, and some people have a lack of knowledge around diversity and you know we have mandatory code-of-conduct training as councillors. So, I would like to see the survey compulsory, and that linked with mandatory training, and one of the things that WEN Wales said in our response was that you could link having done the training and having done the survey to the first payment that you get as a councillor. So, unless you do that, you do not get your payment, and I think that would be a very strong message to send.

Okay. Megan.

Yes, I very much agree with what has been said, particularly on equality training. I think something that should be pressed is that this data is also assured to be anonymised, and ensured it cannot be linked back to that candidate. That's something that for us—. Obviously, for a lot of disabled people, you would not be able to tell that they are disabled by looking at them, and we have had people say to us before, especially in things like job applications, that they are hesitant to declare themselves as a disabled person in case that has any pushback onto them. So, making sure that this is anonymised, and that candidates feel secure to be able to provide that data, is really important. And also to highlight the importance of equality training, especially—disability equality training rooted in the social model, designed and delivered in co-production with disabled people, for councillors and for staff around councils, is really, really important.

If I could just very quickly come in on that, actually, it's really important, because you're right—it is a barrier. People are reluctant to put some of this information, not just because it's deeply personal, but making it anonymous—. But what's really critical is what are you going to do with it: once you've collected this data, what difference is it actually going to make to the lives of potential candidates or potential councillors as well? Because some people will be reluctant to give this information because it is deeply personal, unless they have the trust and faith that something is actually going to be done with it and it's not just going to be put into a report that people like us will sit in and comment on. It's actually about what difference it's going to make for candidates on the ground.

And Uzo.

Thank you, Chair. I just want to say that I echo what Catherine has said, so I won't repeat it, but the ongoing fear, anxiety, stress and concern raised by a variety of black, Asian and minority ethnic people cannot be ignored. This is time for change. We have to note that the Senedd broke a record back in 2003 by becoming the first legislature to achieve the 50:50 gender balance. This was primarily because some parties used things like the all-women shortlist. You have parties using things like twinning and zipping on lists—all things to correct the historic imbalance that we see in our day-to-day politics. Nobody has done that for black, Asian and minority ethnic people, and I think that the issues around racism being rife in our society really need leadership and people with lived experience of racial injustice to sit around the table in the Senedd and advise, and to sit around local authorities, and to sit as councillors to highlight the plight of local people. I think, unless this is done, you're just going to keep hearing third party reporting. You won't have real people who understand and who have lived through racism bringing issues, but also to highlight the contributions of people. We're looking at celebrating 75 years of Windrush next week, from the twenty-second. Councillors from diverse ethnic backgrounds are able to highlight this. I just do think that this is the time to put measures in place and not keep collecting data that sits there gathering dust. We have so much data and nothing is changing. We do need to take proper positive action to ensure that more black, Asian and minority ethnic; Gypsy, Roma and Traveller; and eastern Europeans, are able to come forward, through whatever system is used. Thank you.

Thank you, Uzo. We'll move on, then, to Sam Rowlands.

Thank you, Chair. Uzo has made a really important point there—and it was mentioned earlier as well—about the potential use of quotas. I was just wondering about your views on how that might work. You've mentioned the potential gender quotas in the future, but of course all protected characteristics are equally important. I was just wondering how you'd expect to see quotas to ensure there's fairness. Around 20 per cent of people in Wales are disabled; we heard there from Uzo some of the challenges to support black, Asian and ethnic minority people standing for election. I believe around 6.2 per cent of the population identify as black, Asian or ethnic minority. I was just wondering about views around quotas. There seems to be a comfort amongst you around having a gender quota. I expect, then, therefore, there should be quotas for all protected characteristics. Is that right?

Catherine. I'll bring you in next, Uzo.

I think quotas work, first of all. Over 100 countries around the world have successfully used them to increase the number of women in their parliaments. Ireland, for example, in 2016, put in place a quota, and the number of women candidates rose by 90 per cent. That's just one example, but there are plenty of them. There's also some emerging evidence, but there isn't much, unfortunately, about what are called intersectionally embedded quotas. We've put a link to that in our evidence. There are plenty of countries that are doing the method that you suggest, which is putting in quotas, for example, for race, disabled people and so on.

I'm not entirely sure that we could do that under the Equality Act 2010, the intersectional bit here, but what we can do—I've lost my notes, apologies—is political parties actually could, already, now, reserve seats for characteristics other than sex, as long as not all seats on the shortlist are for one protected characteristic. So, you could have political parties—. We could encourage them all to do this already, voluntarily, but I'm sure you'll hear from other members of the panel that, unfortunately, voluntary measures don't always work.

I would just like to make one more comment, that, obviously, the questioning is going round on different topics, but I think we have to all realise that there isn't one silver bullet that's going to solve this diversity in democracy. There are a lot of different things we need to put in place. There's the legal side around quotas and there are measures that political parties can and must take themselves to really make the change. I think these reserved seats for certain characteristics would work really well.

I am really frustrated by the legislative limitations on having the same sort of treatment for gender as race, but across the piece, across all protected characteristics—we want to see more LGBTQIA people, we want to see more disabled people, we want to see people from diverse religious backgrounds, we want to see more black, Asian and minority ethnic people. There are limited signs that anything has improved in terms of representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic people, Gypsy, Roma and Travellers, eastern Europeans, disabled people and the wider protected characteristics. It is clear that leaving political parties on their own to tackle these issues will achieve varying results, and many people just don't care. They genuinely do not care.

This is the year of anti-racism, where we're wanting to see Wales anti-racist by 2030. How can we achieve this if our councils don't reflect any of those diverse ethnic people that we need to begin to help councils understand what the issues are? I think the glacial progress will not address the inequalities in our society, and I do feel we need to do more to bring about a firm commitment. I think the cross-party groups have a really strong role to play to invite all parties to make their position clear ahead of the election. So, it's really about having these difficult conversations within political parties about what is the right thing to do. Positive action, we know, cannot guarantee better representation in our council chambers. We're leading in Wales in terms of gender, so if we can do it for gender, surely we can do it for other parts of the Equality Act protected characteristics. Thank you.

Thank you, Uzo. Chris.

I think, just on this, having to see this as well through that intersectional lens is really important, because quotas are a positive step, but they're only a short-term, or medium-term at best, tool. Actually, what it demonstrates is the fact that we're not doing enough. We're not doing enough to reach the wonderful, diverse communities that we've got in Wales. I think it's making sure that we are able to connect with communities so much better than we are, to encourage communities to come into this arena. I think quotas are an option, but all that does to me is highlight the fact that what's happening now isn't working, and that something is wrong. It could be a useful tool, and it can be a useful tool, because we've seen it in other places, but it can't be the only thing to increase diversity in politics in Wales.

Natasha, and then Megan.

I just want to add to that, I suppose, because there is no denying that quotas are a very blunt instrument—they are—but they are potentially a necessary instrument because we're not making enough progress quickly enough. There's no doubting that the question of applying quotas to other protected characteristics is more complex than when we're talking about gender, but that's not necessarily a reason not to do it. What we'd like to see is starting from a position of, 'How do we make this work?' not 'What are the problems? Why is this too difficult?' There might very well be more effective measures around different protected characteristics than a traditional quota, so let's explore what those might look like. Let's speak to communities that aren't well represented and understand what their barriers are and try and shift that.

For me, it's always useful to remember that the purpose of a quota or any kind of positive action measure, in an ideal world, if you do have to use one—well, in an ideal world, you wouldn't have to use them, but if you do have to use one—it's a short-term measure to ensure that all actors that have the ability to drive change—in this case, often, political parties or political institutions—are prioritising action to remove those barriers, are looking at their policies and procedures, are looking at their cultures. It should be something that forces everybody to do that, so that we remove the issues from that space, and eventually, we shouldn't need a quota, because if we always need one, we haven't dealt with the deep-rooted structural issues that are causing the under-representation in the first place.

Thank you, Natasha. Megan.

Absolutely. I think something that is very important to this is that one of the problems of being reliant on political parties to enforce these actions is that you don't get that universality, and so the representation that you would find in your local council will be dependent on the majority party and what actions specifically they are taking on representation, which is why it’s so important to us that this is something that is widespread, and this is something that is universal, so that if you are, from our perspective, a disabled person looking to seek election, then you know no matter what political party you're in, no matter what local council you are a part of, you have a fair shot at getting a role, or if you are a disabled person, you will know that your representation that you can see in your local council isn’t dependent on the internal policies of the majority party.

Thank you very much, Megan. Sam.

Thank you, Chair. I think the points you're making around quotas being a very blunt tool—. That’s probably where part of my scepticism comes from, to be really frank with you this morning. There’s the old saying that culture eats strategy for breakfast, because actually, it’s culture shift that needs to happen to enable long-term change.

But just to help me understand, especially in local government here in Wales, there’s a significant number of independent councillors, and there’s a lot of talk about parties and the role of parties in supporting and developing diversity; how do you square all this with the absolute right that anybody should be able to stand for election without being affiliated to a party?

I’m happy to jump in. Yes, it's a different landscape at the local government level, and I think this comes back to why there's not a single tool or a single approach that can fix this. For a sizeable proportion of people that go into local councils and into local politics, a political party will be the route through which they do it, and political parties can do what they can in their field of direct influence there.

There are ways that we can look at the ways that councils operate in terms of getting that wider awareness of what being a councillor is all about, how to run for election, making sure that there’s support available, national initiatives like the access to elected office fund that apply across the board. A blunt instrument like a quota is not going to be able to be applied to independents; it won't, because you need that institutional sort of anchor, I suppose, of what the political party is. But there are other measures that could be taken to ensure that more people from diverse backgrounds who aren't affiliated with a political party do think that being a councillor is for them. And yes, for me, that comes down to awareness of what support is in place, and not just around additional support you might need if you're a disabled person, but the costs that are associated if you've got children, or other needs.

There are lots of things that I think can be done that remove the barriers in that space—again, hearing from people who have run as independents, or have chosen to perhaps step away from it and understand what their experiences were. Because I can imagine without the support of a political party around you, it can be quite a challenging space to be. So, I think hearing voices from independents to understand that would be a really important part of working out what we can do in that space.

If I can come in on this. Standing for council as an independent can be a fairly large risk, especially financially, for a lot of disabled people we talk to who are seeking election. One of their biggest barriers is about either the financial cost of standing for council, the financial risk associated with standing for council, or the paperwork; just the sheer amount of paperwork you need to fill out to be a candidate is a very significant barrier to people being able to stand. So, we see people use that political party system as a tool to be able to get whatever amount of support that that political party can suggest. But as Natasha was saying, it's the other avenues of support and the other avenues of what general support is in place to allow disabled people to stand, what general support is in place to allow women, to allow black or minority ethnic people to stand, what additional support is in place for them.

Thank you, Megan. We'd better move on, I think, to Mabon ap Gwynfor.

Thank you very much, Chair. May I ask one question, and ask you to give a brief answer, as a starting point? Why are we in this situation, in your view, where people from different backgrounds cannot, or feel that they cannot, put their names forward?

Yes, Chris.

I'm happy to start on that. I think there's a culture, and it goes back to what Sam mentioned earlier—there needs to be a cultural shift. And I think, for too long, communities across Wales have felt disempowered or felt that they're not represented within these structures. And, for me, the critical thing that we talk a lot about is that communities are hard to reach. It's an absolute myth, and it's a convenient myth. Communities aren't hard to reach; people are not hard to reach. It's just the methodologies that we use are not conducive to how communities work.

And I think that has to be something that's considered when we're looking at this from a Senedd level, yes, but equally from a local democracy level: how are organisations, how are institutions, prioritising this? Is it that they don't have the resources, the will or the ability to be able to invest in relationships? And that is really, really key—investing in relationships of communities across Wales to build that trust and to try innovative new methods. Because, if we just stick with the same traditional methods that we're using to connect and engage with communities or to try and promote democracy and promote representation, they're not working. All we're doing is attracting candidates from the same backgrounds, which are non-diverse backgrounds. So, I think we've got to think outside the box, but just forgetting this mindset of, 'Oh, people are hard to reach', because it genuinely is a myth and it is lazy as well.

Okay. Uzo.

Thank you very much, Chair. I have to totally agree with the last speaker. We feel, as black, Asian and minority ethnic people that there's systemic and structural racism at play. There is a system that has worked in this country for years—that system is still being implemented; that system is proven to not be inclusive of black, Asian and minority ethnic people. If not, all regions of Wales, all councils, would be flooded by people who are different—who are represented on the protected characteristic spectrum.

My view is that we really need to stop denying what is in front of our eyes, and recognise, like we did prior to producing the 'Anti-racist Wales Action Plan', the fact that systemic structures and the methods of election are set in a way that favours the status quo. If we do what we've always done, we will get what we've always got. If we want to change the way that councils look and diversify and include, we need to ensure that we review the systems with a very clear cultural competency framework, and that is something that needs to happen urgently to ensure that we're futureproofed and we're inclusion-proofed and that equitable systems will be put into place that are more welcoming and open. Thank you.

Thank you, Uzo. Megan.

Quite simply, a lot of people can't stand because the way that the system is set up is so structurally disablist that it's extremely difficult. And by 'the system', I don't just mean the very formal candidature procedure, I also mean that—. Many people in this room have stood for elected office, clearly, and how did you get to selection? The ability to attend those meetings, the ability to make those connections, to be in those networks can be very, very difficult and a huge barrier for disabled people to be able to stand for office and be able to stand for election, especially election in a seat that is winnable for them. And there are very limited support structures. Something that we saw with the access to elected office fund is that when those structures were in place, people felt a lot more confident, a lot more able to physically stand with the knowledge that, okay, they will be able to have a personal assistant with them that doesn't come out of their candidate budget. And there is a problem with a lack of support for disabled candidates during the election, but also a huge lack of support for disabled candidates who are seeking election.

Something that we are seeking to develop and we think would be really important to develop is a disability politics network, so, a network of disabled people who are current councillors or aspiring councillors, to be able to create that community support, and to start to develop some of those resources to allow people, not just those who have already been selected for candidacy, to be able to stand and win an election, but for people to be able to feel like they could become a candidate at all.

Can I just say something?

Catherine.

Thank you. Yes, there are just so many barriers that exist, it's hard to know where to start. We, in partnership with Disability Wales, Stonewall Cymru and the Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team, run a mentoring programme—Equal Power Equal Voice. We talk a lot to young people and older people, who want to get elected and want to move into politics. For many of them, they have caring responsibilities. That's a really big issue. And in the council survey that was done in 2022 of elected councillors, 65 per cent of those surveyed said they had no caring responsibilities, which I think is fascinating, because if you look around society—certainly most women have caring responsibilities, either for children, an older parent, a sibling or whatever—there are huge caring responsibilities. So, that is something that really prevents women standing. Another one is online abuse. Another one, of course, is poverty or not having the economic means to stand. It costs to stand for election, doesn't it?

The other thing that we come across time and time again with women is confidence, so not feeling that they could do it. Some people are also—. They feel like they want to get involved, but they don't know how to join a political party. I think there are just so many different things we need to do to change the situation, from education in schools on politics, to mentoring programmes. We've got an amazing event—I have to give a plug—'We Belong Here', 21 October. We've got a women's takeover of the Senedd, which is going to take place here, and the Llywydd and the Commission are being incredibly supportive of this event. The idea is to bring women from across Wales, from all backgrounds, from all protected characteristics, into the Senedd to bring them into the seat of power, to show them that it is accessible. We just think that's a really important thing that we can do. But yes, it kind of boils down to confidence, candidates in terms of the political parties selecting those different people from different protected characteristics, and also cash—three Cs.

Okay, Natasha.

Chair, can I come in please?

If I could just add, just to, I suppose, say that ultimately, we're talking about systems, structures and cultures that are built around a norm that just doesn't apply to a huge proportion of the population. So, they're going to keep churning out and favouring, generally speaking, white, middle class men, predominantly, and in local council, of a certain age, as well.

I do just want to stress, I suppose, the point around safety and inclusion in politics. I don't think we're in a position at the moment where I could confidently say that politics is a safe and inclusive place for women, if we look at the stories that have come out over the last few months, and it seems to be daily that there's something in the press around women experiencing sexual harassment, whether that's in politics, whether it's on the street, whether it's in college or school, and sometimes it feels like that stuff is going in the wrong direction. I think, for as long as we're seeing that and we know the extent of the online abuse that women, particularly women of colour in politics, do experience, that is going to be a massive barrier. It's not an attractive thing for me, if I'm honest, if I was looking at it: 'Do I want to be an elected representative right now, where I'm expected to be available 24/7 and to take that kind of abuse?' No, probably not. And if I'm as close as I am to this political world with what I do, and that's how I feel, then there are going to be people who feel that even more acutely.

Okay, thank you very much. Mabon? Or Uzo, did you want to come back in?

Yes, Chair. Thank you so much. I wanted to say that a couple of things are critical. Many of us—. I stood for election, once upon a time, and what shocked me was not just the difficulties of trying to navigate your voice with people who don't look like you, who are visibly white, but also to find your own sense of self and purpose, and then you get out to knock on the doors with your white colleagues, all seeking to and the people in front of you are saying 'I will entertain the white people; that black woman needs to leave my forecourt, or I'm not voting for any of you.' This happened on a variety of occasions, where they singled me out and said, 'Don't come to the door, I'm not going to vote for you.' And even when it got to actual selection, you will see regular voters of particular politics, and they would vote for three who were white and not give that one extra vote. So, there's systemic and structural racism, but there is also everyday racism in the community.

I think the local authorities need to have a firm grasp of just the psychological trauma that people face when you're continuously humiliated in this process, and put in measures to fight for anti-racism. We've got the Welsh Government's anti-racism action plan. We need to ensure that that is being championed across local authorities.

Chair, may I also say that the passing of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, if you say there has been a number of provisions aimed at increasing diversity within households, and enabling greater participation in the local democracy—. For example, they talk about a duty on principal households to encourage local people to participate in decision making, and a duty to prepare and publish a public participation strategy, developed in conjunction with diverse communities. Where are we with these rules? If you look at surveys of black leaders—. And I talked to Lord Simon Woolley who led Operation Black Vote—the work that they did to raise awareness of black, Asian, minority ethnic leaders, some of whom later became MPs and MSs, has been extensive, but when all these systemic and structural barriers exist, it is impossible to rise above them. So, change has to come from within the council, implementing the requirements set out in this particular legislation.

We also have to have more black leaders in decision-making roles. We need more equal educational opportunities for black people, Asian people, minority ethnic people. And also, we need our white allies to challenge and use their voices—use their voices to challenge unacceptable violation of black, Asian and minority ethnic people's human rights, of Gypsy, Roma human rights, of eastern Europeans' human rights. We need to ensure that the progress made to improve diversity in local authorities since passing this Act is essentially focused, even to a greater extent, on diverse ethnic representation, because we are saying that racism in our society is a safeguarding issue, and we need more people with lived experiences highlighting this, serving our communities, and ensuring equity of access to political processes.

No, that's fine. Thank you very much, Uzo. Okay. We've got, I'm afraid, very limited time left and a number of issues that we need to deal with. We'll have to have brief questions and short answers, I'm afraid. Mabon, would you like to continue?

Thank you very much, Chair. So, briefly, we've heard you talk about new ideas. Do you think that the idea of job sharing is one that works, or is a good one, and would you welcome seeing that being promoted?

Can I say something on job sharing, having been in a cabinet role job share myself, actually, with my other hat on? I think job sharing can work really well. If you're new to a role, it can support you to—. Well, it can enable you to do the job. It also, obviously, widens participation, but in my experience, it can work, but it wasn't really promoted. It wasn't something that—. Although it's been made possible by the Act, it wasn't promoted at all; it was just that I knew about it, having known a councillor in Swansea who did it, that I could propose it when I got my role. So, that's why it was very much coming from the individual. It's not something that I see promoted at local government level.

I think also it's really difficult because I don't think people understand enough—other councillors—that only one of you, as a job share, should be at every cabinet meeting. It's supposed to be a job share so you shouldn't both have to go to everything, but, often, you do both have to go to everything. And so, in a way, that's crazy, I think.

So, I think I would also like to see the job sharing, if possible, extended to candidates standing in elections. I know that's something that, in Laura McAllister's report, she recommended—that you share the salary, you're elected as one and, if one stands down, you both stand down. I definitely think that should be encouraged, because I do think being a councillor is a huge honour and a huge privilege. It does take a lot of time up, so if you do have caring responsibilities and so on, it's just going to be more difficult for you. So, to get over some of these barriers, if you could have job-sharing candidates, I think that would be amazing, because I think you'd get more people and a greater diversity of people standing.

I think I can see general agreement there. Anybody like to add anything? Megan.

I just wanted to add that, in 2021, we did some research on the implementation of the United Nations convention on the rights of disabled people in Wales, under which access to political and public life is a key part. And, during the conversations with disabled people around that, some did express that if job sharing was widely available or was more commonly talked about, they would feel more comfortable standing or feel more able to.

Just incredibly briefly as well, I agree with what's been said, and that's why it's so important around the promotion of the benefits of job sharing, and equally because there are real benefits for many people, particularly, again, unpaid carers, people with families, people with children, some disabled people as well, and that's where the connections with hybrid working as well map over.

Okay. Mabon, hybrid working.

Thank you. Very briefly, again, having touched on that, Chris, what are your views on hybrid working? It's possible to work from home now since COVID. Is that a positive thing? Is that going to facilitate more people coming into local government?

I'd say 'yes'.

Yes.

I think what's important, though, is understanding that hybrid working needs to be done well, and if you're going to run a meeting hybrid, it needs to be genuinely hybrid, and I think the reality is that, across our local councils, are all of our council buildings set up to do hybrid meetings effectively like this? Possibly not. Are all of our councillors digitally competent to do that? Are people being trained how to chair a meeting in a hybrid way appropriately? Because, yes, it can be a great way of opening stuff up, but it's got to be done in a way that is inclusive, because, sometimes, if you're dialling into a hybrid meeting, you can, kind of, become a bit of a spectator if it's not being run with the right tech and with the right skill sets. So, with that caveat, 'yes'.

And Megan.

We believe hybrid working is extremely important to creating an inclusive and accessible environment to stand and be part of your local council. So, something that has come up as an issue for us frequently amongst disabled councillors we speak to is the built environment and issues of the accessibility of buildings, but also issues such as people parking on pavements and so they can't physically get to the building. Hybrid working is something that's a really important part of this, but we've also seen more of a return to in-person meetings, or hybrid meetings being seen more as an afterthought, and we believe that hybrid meetings are something that's extremely important. In the most recent cross-party group on disability, in some questions around the Equal Power Equal Voice project, it talked about the experiences of disabled people who were mostly housebound and their ability to participate in political and public life, and hybrid meetings or hybrid working just opens up the political and public life to so many people with such an incredible diverse amount of experiences and so much wealth of knowledge to give to their community.

Okay. Chris.

Very quickly, on two things, it's really important that hybrid working should not be seen as a solution to tackling access issues for disabled people across Wales. And, equally, I think it's really important around, yes, if we are going to have a greater emphasis on embracing remote working, having that parity of being able to build relationships with other elected members, with the civil servants, or with the councillors themselves, is really important. So, that parity of having space to build relationships within hybrid working as you would do in in-person meetings as well is really, really important to think about.

Okay. Thank you for that. Joel James, then. We'll move on to Joel. Joel.

Thank you, Chair, and thanks, everyone, for this morning—well, this afternoon now, I suppose. I notice you mentioned the access to elected office fund, and I just wanted to know what people's perception is of that. Is it widely known? One of the issues that's been raised is a lack of awareness of it, and, from my own experience as a councillor, this wasn't necessarily fed down to any of us, really, on the ground. I just wanted to know how effective that is in terms of helping people to have access to office, as they say, then, because I know that there's only been very few applications to it since it was started about two years ago. And then, I just wanted to know whether or not you think that should be rolled out—or a similar fund created—to include other people, like for women or people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and that. Thank you.

Okay. Uzo.

Thank you, Chair. I do believe that, to the best of our knowledge, the reviews that we sought amongst grass-roots community members mentioned that it was to assist disabled people standing for election in May. So, with the cost-of-living crisis, we know that black, Asian and minority ethnic people suffer and live in poverty predominantly, so opening up this access to all would be really, really powerful to enable them to get onto a level playing field. Thank you.

Thank you, Uzo. Megan.

So, the access to elected office fund was delivered by Disability Wales in conjunction with the Welsh Government. The fund very specifically was looking at providing financial support for any impairment-related expenses that a disabled candidate would have in their time in candidacy, and provided things such as personal assistance or travel expenses. So, in the last, there were 18 applicants and 17 awards were given out to them: 13 candidates had support delivered; one candidate was elected uncontested; two candidates rejected the support available; and one candidate was not able to find support in time. From the feedback that we received from those candidates, it was extremely positive—they felt significantly more supported during the election, and significantly more able to stand. But, one of the problems that my colleagues experienced during running was that there was an issue with candidates being aware of the fund. The fund is still quite new, but something that would have been useful is some more support from political parties to be actively advertising it to their membership, from local authorities and local councils to be proactively targeting, 'This is a fund that's available and exists, and is here to support you.'

Something that we felt really interesting in the access to elected office fund, speaking about inclusivity and intersectionality, was that, especially in the beginning, as it was just being set up, they were really looking specifically at the gender of the candidate, but the gender balance of the candidates ended up being about 50:50, including some candidates who were non-binary. And we found, obviously, there is not enough data to be able to establish a causal relationship between the two, but we found it very interesting that, without it being an active goal, we did see quite a lot of gender parity within the fund.

Something that we do think is really important is that this fund is extended for a longer period of time—sorry, I will finish soon—because something that we found was that—. I think it was about six weeks that were given, and it was just not enough time to be able to find all of the support that people needed. As was said previously, with some of those, it meant that it would have been very, very difficult to find British Sign Language translation for BSL users, or it would have been very difficult to find any other translation during the candidacy process. I would be a huge proponent of this fund being extended as well to other things, especially things like childcare support, which initially comes to mind. The financial barrier is one of the main barriers that we see to be able to stand for office.

Thanks very much. Catherine.

I'd like to make just a quick point. I agree with everything Megan has said. So, the electoral reform and administration White Paper proposed a parameter for the fund, to provide support for candidates from under-represented groups, and that seems, to us, to be too limited, because what that does is it suggests that there's only a problem as long as those groups are under-represented. So, 'Once we get to 50 per cent women, once we get the proportion of disabled people or people from a black, Asian or minority ethnic community into politics, once we've got enough, we don't need this fund.' Well, we will still need this fund, because those barriers will still exist for those people coming behind and for those people once they have entered into politics.

Okay. Thanks very much. Chris.

I just think that concept of access to actual democratic spaces, be it physically the buildings themselves—. I think, equally, do we know? I think we may have a grasp, on the surface, of what it's like for many communities, and particularly disabled people, to access these spaces, but I don't think we really understand what it's like, and that lived-experience approach, from disabled people in physically accessing these opportunities to democracy, and that includes the buildings. Because the reality is that society doesn't adapt quickly enough to disabled people, not even close to the level it adapts to non-disabled people. I think the access to the elected office fund is a fantastic scheme and is critical, and I absolutely echo what Megan's been saying.

Okay. Thanks very much. We'll move on, then, to Jayne Bryant. Jayne.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you for coming in this afternoon, as well. You've touched on the issue of mentoring schemes, and you've talked briefly about some of the schemes that are available across organisations, which is really good. I just wonder, do you think that they are sufficiently targeted enough to have the required impact on increasing that diversity, and, just on the aspect of attracting people in to be local councillors, also making sure that they're retained as well, once they are there? And also, have you done any work about those people who've been through the mentoring programmes, stood as council candidates but, sadly, didn't get elected this time? How are they supported and encouraged, and their experience used, to perhaps stand the next time as well?

Catherine.

I'd like to talk about that. Thank you for the question. So, yes, the first thing, on whether we target the right people, I think the benefit of working with Stonewall Cymru is they have a fantastic membership and network of LGBTQ+ people, and EYST is the same for those from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and Disability Wales from the disabled community. So, we do feel we have a really good intersection of women and men with those different protected characteristics. In 2022, actually, nine mentees stood and five were elected to local government, so we were really pleased with that. And in the past, in previous years, more mentees have stood in previous council elections and by-elections and so on, so we are having some success. But, obviously, there is so much more we could do if we had more funding, if, perhaps, more organisations were involved, and so on. There's always more that could be done for mentoring programmes. And, of course, mentoring is not a silver bullet. To me, there are two sides to this. We need to get the legislative framework right, make quotas legally binding at local government level, I would suggest. Also we could, like we've talked about, make the data collection a legal requirement—mandatory. And then, on the other side, you've got the trying to create that pipeline, and that's where the mentoring programmes come in. I think we need all of these things.

But I would just love to add, in case I don't get time, that we would also really like to see these diversity and inclusion strategies done by political parties, and that was something recommended by the Special Purpose Committee on Senedd Reform, because we need to have political parties really looking at—. For example, we would like to see, in those strategies, things like zero tolerance to online abuse, parties adopting quotas and targets like Monmouthshire did, and, for example, looking at anonymised recruitment—all this kind of thing. That's certainly something that WEN Wales would be really happy to support political parties with. Those diversity inclusion strategies from political parties should then be monitored to check their effectiveness. We think this is something really important that needs to happen, because that will help all political parties develop—with all of the organisations, in fact, sitting around this table—could help develop really strong strategies for those parties. They should be published and reviewed annually, I would say, or before each election probably, and that would really help us make progress.

Megan.

So, also to point out that four of the people who got elected were also disabled people, and we're seeing some really great feedback from the mentees within Equal Power Equal Voice. Something that draws attention to us is the importance of wider disability politics network or wider networks that will also be able to continue that mentorship, continue that peer-to-peer support after the end of whatever mentorship programme you may be undergoing, or the election process. Something that we did also notice was that there was a slight difference in terms of elections to town and county councils and community councils. We found that most of the people who were elected were co-opted onto community councils, and we do think that there is a bit of a slight difference. We still see some of the barriers to town and county councils coming through here.

Okay. Thank you, Megan. Okay. Jayne.

I think Uzo has—

Oh, sorry, Uzo. Yes, Uzo.

Thank you, Chair. Just to say that for black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, I think they were particularly impressed by the diversity turnaround in the Cardiff Council area. We have to say a massive 'well done' where we see it, not just that, but in the progression of the councillors. The diversity spread was so magnificent, we wish that it would be echoed around all other parts. We also saw some really interesting diversity elements or threads of positive action coming through in Bangor, where they elected some diverse ethnic people—at least one in there.

But, for us, I want to highlight the fact that the Welsh Local Government Association council endorsed a series of significant recommendations for cross-party work on this issue to ensure that we have more diverse councils. People agreed to encourage political parties, through the WLGA political groups, to commit to proactive and co-ordinated activities to improve diversity in their local government democracy. Where are we seeing that? We're not seeing that. To provide a clear public commitment to improving diversity—we're not seeing that.

I just want to say that, for us, the Senedd represents everything that we celebrate about Wales—20 years of excellent democracy. How inclusive has it been? We still don't have one single black woman in the Senedd. Not one. So, where is that progress? For us, interacting—. We've had over 200 years or more of mixed communities—Somali people, diverse Nigerian people, all the people, Yemenis, people who came to serve this country during the time of war effort. Even way before that, we had a lot of Jews in Wales; where are they reflected in our diversity? Interacting with multicultural communities is currently, in our view as Race Council Cymru, treated as a tick-box exercise, and are often all seen as, you know, black, Asian—treated as a homogenous group where we're used for photo opportunities and invited to come and be a tick-box. We need to celebrate 20 years of devolution effectively, with evidence. We want to stand with people like the people in Butetown are celebrating incredible diversity. We're seeing diversity in Riverside and Grangetown. We want to see more participatory inclusion strategies that are not photograph opportunities just to validate that we were allowed to apply. Where is the evidence that the measures in place at the moment are working? We haven't seen them. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Uzo. Jayne, did you want to briefly conclude, perhaps, with some questions on better support around online abuse, which I know is a big issue, isn't it?

Thank you, Chair. Yes, it is a big issue, and I know we're short of time, but I really understand if there are things everybody wants to add later, I'm sure that the Chair would be happy to receive those.

Yes, absolutely.

But again, I think Uzo has mentioned it, and Megan, just around some of the—. And we've talked about the culture, and just around that online abuse, and Natasha spoke powerfully about that as well. I just wonder how you think the guidance, training and support that's available at the moment helps deal with that online intimidation and harassment and abuse. Is it fit for purpose? And what could be done better? What do we need to do?

I find it incredibly disappointing that we're in a situation where we have to be training people, particularly women, as to how to be resilient enough to steel yourself against the barriers of online abuse. I appreciate that it's necessary, and I think it probably does need to be happening, but it bothers me. It still feels like we're fixing women and not fixing a system.

Some of what needs to be done is not going to sit within the direct sphere of influence of local government, or even the Senedd. There's obviously a massive responsibility for these online platforms to be cracking down on this stuff a hell of a lot better than they are. I do think that there is a role for political parties to be playing around the code of conduct that's expected of Members and of elected representatives. I think we are in a situation where some use social media in a way that sets a terrible, terrible tone about what is acceptable and what is not, and I think that inevitably trickles down and helps to toxify our politics, because our politics is deeply, deeply toxic at the moment.

So, I think there are going to be different levels of responsibility. Yes, we need to make sure that there's support in place for elected representatives who are on the receiving end of this, making sure that party and council cultures are such that they are safe and inclusive places, that there are support networks to tap into. More broadly, social media companies need to pull their finger out and sort their stuff out. I think we probably need to be looking at what the avenues are for reporting this to the police and the like, but that doesn't diminish the role, I think, for political parties to look at how to keep their house in order, and to make it really clear about what's expected from political activists in how they conduct themselves. We have to have a zero-tolerance approach to this because it's just absolutely abhorrent what women in particular are dealing with, in my opinion.

Okay. Does everybody agree with that?

Agreed.

Okay. Well, thank you all very much for giving evidence today here in the room with us, and virtually, Uzo. You will be sent a transcript to check for factual accuracy in the usual way. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, then. The next item we have today is item 5, which is papers to note. We have paper 7, a letter from the Finance Committee to the Minister for Finance and Local Government in relation to the Non-Domestic Rating Bill. Paper 8 is a response from the Minister for Finance and Local Government to the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee in relation to the Non-Domestic Rating Bill legislative consent motion. Paper 9 is a response from the Minister for Finance and Local Government to the Finance Committee in relation to that Bill, and we'll be coming on to that Bill in due course in this meeting. Paper 10 is a response from the Minister for Finance and Local Government in relation to the committee's inquiry into local authority leisure and library services. And paper 11 is additional information from the Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, again with regard to that inquiry and her evidence session. Are Members content to note the papers? Yes. Thank you very much.

Item 6, then, is a motion under Standing Order 17.42 to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting. I see that committee is content to do so. We will then move into private session.