Senedd has no powers for gender quota at elections, claims Tory MS

Trying to introduce gender quotas could jeopardise plans to increase the size of the Senedd, it has been claimed.

Reform plans include proposals for mandatory quotas of men and women.

But Conservative Senedd member Darren Millar says there is "clear" legal advice the Welsh Parliament does not have the power to implement them.

The comments came ahead of a debate on the plans, which would see the number of Members of the Senedd increase from 60 to 96.

It would also see the voting system change, with Labour and Plaid Cymru wanting to see the changes in place by the 2026 election.

The Welsh government's chief legal advisor, Mick Antoniw, did not comment on whether ministers had the authority to legislate on gender equality, when he came under questioning from Mr Millar on Wednesday.

He said he would "give very detailed consideration" to any proposals approved by the Senedd.

Separately the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats claimed that the leaders of Labour and Plaid had undermined the work of a committee that was drawing up reform plans in a "stitch-up".

The Senedd backed the reform proposals - which will need further legislation to become a reality - 40 votes to 14 on Wednesday evening.

Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford and Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price's agreement for a 96-member Senedd was published before the Welsh Parliament committee had concluded.

Mr Millar, who quit the committee following the plan's publication, said: "The legal advice was absolutely clear. Equal opportunities is a non-devolved matter."

He asked Mr Antoniw, counsel general, for his view on whether the Senedd had the power to deliver on the recommendations.

On gender quotas, the committee recommended a legal obligation on parties to present equal numbers of men and women and alternate them on their candidate lists.

It acknowledged there was a possibility of a legal challenge, because powers over most equality and discrimination issues remain in Westminster and not Cardiff.

It also noted that any such challenge could delay reform beyond the 2026 deadline and recommended that the Welsh government draft the legislation in such a way as "to ensure that our recommendations on Senedd reform for 2026 are not put at undue risk" of a referral to the Supreme Court.

Darren Millar resigned from the committee after Labour and Plaid published their own proposals for reform, which were later adopted by the committee.

He said: "The Senedd does not have the powers to impose statutory gender quotas to tackle discrimination against women. That legal advice was clear to us."

He asked Mr Anontiw: "Do you accept that if your government presses ahead with statutory gender quotas, you could actually jeopardise the whole Senedd reform agenda and fail to deliver it by 2026?"

Mr Antoniw did not answer the question directly but said: "My role, and that of Welsh government, is if the proposals that are in that report are accepted by the Senedd to consider those in detail carefully and to look at the best way of implementing those proposals into viable and robust legislation."

A previous committee examining electoral reform in Cardiff Bay was told in 2019, before the institution was renamed to Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament, that regulating political parties over diversity would not be in the powers of the Senedd.

The Senedd's head of legal services, Matthew Richards, said: "The door is not completely closed on this, but it's certainly very limited, and, of course, a lot of it in terms of diversity is down to political parties, and regulating those would certainly fall outside the competence of the assembly."

Clearly there are serious question marks over whether the Senedd has the power to legislate to impose gender quotas and any attempt to do so could end up in front of the Supreme Court.

If that happens it could scupper what is already a tight timetable - getting the whole reform package in place in time for the next Senedd election in 2026.

Both Labour and Plaid are determined to meet that deadline, but doing so means gender quotas may have to be set aside.

The options include running two separate bills through the Senedd or making gender quotas a detachable segment within a single piece of legislation that could be separated from the rest of the reform package.

Welsh government lawyers will be looking for ingenious work arounds in drafting the legislation but it may be that alternative routes have to be explored.

The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds was one of the members of a Senedd reform committee.

Speaking in a Senedd debate, Ms Dodds claimed that one aspect of the plan - to use boundaries drawn up in a review of Westminster constituencies and then pair them - was totally new to the committee and had not been discussed before.

The committee later made proposals which were the same as the Drakeford-Price plan. Ms Dodds implied that the work of the committee was influenced by the Welsh government/Plaid Cymru document.

She said: "It looks like a stitch-up and it feels like a stitch-up. To make an announcement before the committee published its report and to favour proposals so different from what the evidence tells us was a very disappointing approach".

Ms Dodds said boundaries should be based around councils which would "make sense to people in Wales and they can relate to those".

Later, Labour Senedd member for Caerphilly Hefin David said the point when the Welsh government-Plaid Cymru proposals were announced was "very odd".

"I think it would have been better for the government and Plaid Cymru to have set out their view a lot earlier," he said, blaming Plaid for taking too long to agree the co-operation deal with ministers.

The Labour chairman of the committee, Huw Irranca-Davies, has previously denied that the Drakeford-Price plan had tied the hands of the committee's work.

Advocates of a larger Senedd say it is needed to help address the increased powers it has had since 2011.

Counsel general Mick Antoniw told the Senedd: "If we do not act now we run the risk of our legislature not being able to continue to deliver effectively for the people of Wales."

He said there is a "consensus there is an urgent need to create a Senedd that is fit for purpose".

Plaid Cymru's Rhys ab Owen said: "It's not about more politicians. It's about super-powering our parliament - making it fit to represent our people. A stronger Senedd isn't a nice to have. It's an absolute must."