Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good afternoon from Wales, where the Senedd has been continuing to meet virtually since we had the lockdown here in the U.K. I'd like to talk briefly about how we've made changes. I'll structure my talking under four headings: the political wil

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We also introduced weighted voting. Previously, there was no ability for any form of proxy voting, so we introduced the ability for block voting by groups of parties or individuals casting their own votes. We restricted public access to the building when it was open, and this ena

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I can confirm that we have translation from Welsh into English. We don't have it from English into Welsh.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, that's right. For usual plenary committees we would have more than one translator and they would swap over, but because we've been trying to keep our plenary sessions limited to a three-hour slot, we have one translator performing the role. It's the same thing for committees

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I suppose the main thing is that the plenary has continued to meet. I suppose we took it a different way around from many legislatures, where the business committee took a decision that it would continue the business of the plenary in preference to the committees. We allocated ou

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think to begin with that members were keen to continue proceedings. When other legislatures were not meeting at all and were suspended or adjourned, we continued to meet. Now that it has proved to work technologically and procedurally, there is increased pressure from members

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm happy to go first and to say yes, we did. Our business committee, which has representation from all of the parties, did agree to this.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I might be brave enough to go first. From our experience in Wales, albeit the participation is virtual, the members are being asked questions they didn't know of in advance and the ministers themselves are answering. Therefore, I think it isn't any different from being in the c

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have the ability to vote through our virtual proceedings, but it's not an electronic voting system. It's weighted voting and casting the votes on behalf of their party group. They are orally being asked. There's a roll call, and they're stating that they're casting their votes

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We had changes made to our Standing Orders to enable weighted voting. That means that for each party group, one person is nominated to cast the votes of the entire group on the members' behalf. In the case of the government, it includes the Labour Party and the one independent an

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everybody, from Cardiff, Wales. Since my last appearance at the committee was in 2020, I'm going to outline the experience of the Senedd in virtual proceedings in terms of what we currently do, how we do it and why. In terms of

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm very pleased to report that no, we have not had any problems at all. When I spoke to the head of translation prior to this session, she wanted me to report that it was a seamless transition here, that we've had no issues at all, and that we've maintained the capability to pro

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I certainly can.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, it has. To some extent, I think we might say it's even enhanced its ability to do so, particularly with regard to committees and diversity of witnesses. We're able to reach out to people who perhaps would not have the time to attend physical meetings or indeed, as we're doin