The Senedd will be considering a number of Bills related to Senedd reform. The first Bill, the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill, was introduced on 18 September 2023. The Bill makes provisions for increasing the size of the Senedd, changing the Senedd’s electoral system, and establishing reviews of the Senedd’s constituency boundaries.
Further legislation is expected to be introduced later in 2023 that will make provision for the introduction of gender quotas for candidates seeking election to the Senedd and for the collection of diversity information of candidates standing on behalf of political parties.
To inform preparations for scrutiny of the second Bill, relevant Senedd Committees are launching an ARI on gender quotas in parliaments. We are interested in exploring existing evidence around the use of gender quotas in parliaments; the design of different systems that can be used to implement gender quotas; the outcomes achieved by gender quotas in improving the diversity of candidates and parliamentarians; and how compliance with gender quotas is enforced.
In addition to this, we would also be interested in evidence relating to the impact that the collection and publication of diversity information about candidates or elected members has on improving the diversity of parliaments, across a range of protected characteristics, and on different methodologies for the collection and publication of such information.
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