4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on promoting diversity in Wales’s democratic institutions? OAQ(5)0142(FLG)

A great deal of ground remains to be gained before we can be confident that Wales’s democratic institutions fully reflect the population from which they are drawn. Promoting diversity is a responsibility shared by all those with an interest in the health of Welsh democracy.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your response. As it is now 2017 and not 1917, I, along with many others, I’m sure, was dismayed to see the Vale of Glamorgan Council announce a new cabinet that consisted of seven white men following the local council elections. I welcome the Welsh Government’s initiatives to encourage diversity and applaud councils like Caerphilly, which, whilst not quite achieving full gender balance, has appointed four women to a cabinet of nine. If, as I hope, Merthyr council remains in Labour control following the delayed Cyfarthfa ward election tomorrow, I will be encouraging the council to make positive moves towards a gender-balanced cabinet there, but also acknowledge that there’s still much work to do in that council area, too. So, will you join me, Cabinet Secretary, in urging all local authorities in Wales to look at appointing cabinets that are far more reflective of the populations that they serve?

Llywydd, I absolutely agree that it is very important that political leadership at local level reflects the diversity of the communities that that local authority will serve. It is disappointing to see that there will be one council in Wales where diversity is at a pretty low ebb. It is the only local authority in Wales where that will be the case, and there are much better examples in other parts of Wales. There are some interesting new initiatives being tried in parts of Wales. There is a job-share post in the Cabinet in Swansea, for example, which is contributing to gender diversity in the cabinet there. So, we see things moving ahead in many parts of Wales. We have four women leaders of councils now confirmed, which is nowhere near enough, but it is twice as many as we had in the last round. I would urge all local authorities and local authority leaders, in forming cabinets, to think about the way in which their local populations will want to see themselves reflected in the leadership that those council cabinets are there to provide.

I’m sure the Cabinet Secretary will want to join me in congratulating Councillor James Lusted in Rhos-on-Sea for his election to Conwy County Borough Council. Councillor Jay is the first dwarf councillor elected here in the UK. He’s got a very proud record on disability rights and activism. I wonder what you’ll be doing specifically not just to address this gender issue and problem that there is in Welsh local government politics, but also to ensure that people with disabilities are properly represented as well on local authorities.

I thank the Member for that question and for pointing to the important issue of disability and representation at local authority level. I congratulate all those people who stood for election and those who were successful, and particularly people who, in taking that quite brave step, sometimes, to put yourself in front of the public, will know that there will be some additional challenges that they will face in making themselves known and explaining why they could be somebody who would be able to represent people successfully.

Our diversity and democracy programme, which we ran in the last Assembly from October 2014 to March of this year, came out of the report chaired by Professor Laura McAllister on creating more diversity amongst the population. Fifty-one individuals took part in that programme. Sixty-five councillors volunteered to be mentors to them. It included people with disabilities, and it was designed to try and help overcome some of the barriers that people face in putting themselves forward for election. And where people do it and do it successfully, they are very powerful role models to others who we hope will follow in their footsteps.