Janet:
How will the Assembly Commission fund any additional costs associated with the potential name change of the National Assembly for Wales?
Llywydd:
The regulatory impact assessment that will accompany the Bill to be introduced in the near future will assess its potential costs, both for the Assembly itself and other persons and organisations affected. Costs to the Assembly Commission identified in the regulatory impact assessment will be absorbed within existing budgets and capacity.
Janet:
Thank you, Llywydd. As you'll be aware, during the Commission consultation there was a majority agreement that the Assembly should change its name. However, the consultation also disclosed the fact that there is concern about the cost of the changes, and you yourself, Llywydd, addressed us on 13 June 2017 by advising that, and I quote,
'The Commission…will plan the change so as to minimise the cost. We intend, in time, to change just the Assembly’s name, avoiding the need for any wholescale rebrand or a change to the logo.'
Now, I know there's some ambiguity at the moment as to what name or names we're going to be known as, so my question is: how much has already been spent on the transformation process to date, and could you clarify the ambiguity that remains about the projections of costings, and how will this impact on us as Assembly Members and, indeed, the rebranding of our own offices?
Llywydd:
As you are aware, I'm about to introduce the Welsh Parliament and Elections (Wales) Bill as the Member in charge of that Bill. That will be introduced within the next few weeks. That will be accompanied by a regulatory impact assessment and explanatory memorandum, which will go into quite substantial detail on many of the issues you've addressed in your question. I can confirm, as I've said previously, that we are not undertaking a wholesale rebranding of this Assembly; we are undertaking to implement in legislation a name change to reflect our role as a national Parliament, in accordance with the mandate given by an Assembly decision in July of 2016, and that will be done at the most minimal of cost, outlined, as I've said, in the regulatory impact assessment that will be published when the Bill is introduced.
