National Assembly for Wales

Bore da. Croeso, bawb. Can I welcome Members to this week's Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee? The public items of the meeting are being broadcast live on Senedd.tv and the Record of Proceedings will be published in due course. This is a bilingual meeting, and so simultaneous interpretation from Welsh to English is available. We've had apologies from Paul Marr MS. Before we move on, can I ask if there are any declarations of interest from Members? Okay.

Moving on to item 2, then, we've got a series of papers to note. The only one for me to highlight is item 2.5, just briefly, correspondence from the Finance Committee about scrutiny of the Welsh Government draft budget, but we can pick this up with the forward work programme. Are there any other comments Members would like to make? Gwyn. 

I've got a comment on item 2.6. I am cognisant of the fact that that's right at the end of all the items, in case someone else has something higher up. Just to say, I've been contacted regarding this item by several constituents in Swansea who are very supportive of the Swansea residential women's unit. I, as a conflict of interest, was a magistrate prior to coming into the Senedd, and when we sentenced women to a period in prison, the closest place is, as I think it's called, Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire, which is too far. This does affect how people view these things, and it is regarded by my constituents, completely correctly in my view, as unfair that there isn't a closer place. And I was disappointed in the reply to your wonderfully crafted letter, Chair, that there was no money towards this excellent and needed residential unit for offenders in Swansea and south Wales.

Diolch, Gwyn. Yes, I agree. It was a disappointing response, unfortunately. I'll bring in Lynne online.

Thank you very much. I'm also concerned about the response on the Swansea residential women's centre. This has been a long-running issue. As Gwyn has highlighted, if women are given a custodial sentence, they do have to go to Eastwood Park in England. Obviously, parental imprisonment has a big impact on children as well. So, I think it is disappointing that it's funding now that is the barrier to a very much needed facility.

Diolch, Lynne. Pered.

Just in support of the comments from both Lynne and Gwyn, maybe it's something that we can pick up with the forward work programme to see where we go next after this letter, because that might be something that we might need to consider—what next for us. 

Cristiana. 

For the record, Chair, I'd like to echo the concerns raised by my colleagues Gwyn, Lynne and Peredur. 

Thank you. Sarah. 

Yes, I agree. I think it's also the wider risk—when a woman goes into a custodial situation, it's the family that bear the impact, and children. And if they don't have anywhere to be near their parents, then the longer term risk to children is huge and that is just creating a cycle.

Diolch, everybody. As there's consensus there, we'll pick that up later in the agenda. Okay. Any other comments on correspondence? Sarah.

I just wanted to mention the report on the 2026 Senedd elections. There were a couple of things, and firstly it was about voter registration. It was quite interesting as, during the election campaign, I visited a youth centre in Bridgend, an ACT centre, and was talking to young people about registering to vote and they had no idea how to do it. One person, for example, said, 'Well, I help care for my siblings and my mother, and I don't even know what ID I've even got'. So, that was quite interesting. And there was a lot of things in the report about how young people in schools and education are being supported, but people who aren't in that realm seem to have been left out of that cycle. So, it would be interesting to know what support is being given to those more marginalised young people.

I think there was also an element, particularly with the council elections coming up, around the abuse that people were facing during the election. Particularly for me, there was one element about a code of conduct for campaigning. I wanted to mention a personal experience where another candidate for another party had put press releases out about me during the campaign. I was at risk at one point when I thought I was going to lose my job. I had such horrific abuse online, with things I would never repeat to my worst enemy, and that was abuse that started from another candidate leading an attack on me, which I think was inappropriate. I think that it would be important that we do look to develop that code of conduct, because it's out of our realm to tackle a lot of the things around social media, but this is something that we can actively do to make a difference.

Yes, I'd share those concerns as well. I think we all experienced interesting experiences on social media, particularly with this last campaign, didn't we? Okay, if there are no more comments on correspondence, then I'll move on to item 3.

I propose, in accordance with Standing Order 17.42(ix), that the committee resolves to exclude the public from the remainder of the meeting in order to discuss matters relating to the internal business of the committee. Are Members content? Members are content. Diolch yn fawr, bawb.