Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's efforts to attract more women to be county councillors?
We have taken action to support diversity in our councils in a number of ways, including reducing the voting age to sixteen; making permanent the flexibility for council meetings to be held through a variety of different methods, including fully remote and hybrid; and introducing a pilot access to elected office fund.
We are the first country in the UK to have family absence for principal councillors, including for parents who are adopting.
We are also the first country in the UK to introduce job-share arrangements for executive roles. Feedback has been positive with six councils currently operating job-share arrangements. We are now exploring how we can extend these arrangements to senior non-executive roles such as committee chairs.
Recently, I have written to public sector employers in Wales to encourage them to promote the role of councillors within their organisations.
However, to build on these measures, I have commissioned a programme of research to explore the role and experiences of councillors in Wales. The findings have informed a series of workshops across Wales and will in turn shape the next steps in our ongoing work to tackle the barriers that prevent women and people from diverse backgrounds participating in democracy.