Agenda and minutes
Venue: Presiding Officer’s office, 4th floor - Tŷ Hywel. View directions
Contact: Carys Evans, 02920 89 8598
No. | Item |
---|---|
Introduction |
|
Introduction and apologies Minutes: No apologies had been received. |
|
Declarations of interest Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
|
Minutes of the previous meeting Supporting documents: Minutes: The
minutes of the 5 December meeting were agreed. |
|
Update on Legal Services Directorate's Strategy paper 2 and annex Minutes: The
Legal Services Directorate provides services to the Presiding Officers, the
Commission, Committees and all Members, as part of a fully integrated team of
expert Commission officials. In June
2013, Commissioners agreed an approach to the development of this service that
included: -
outsourcing the drafting of
non-Government Bills to an expert external drafter in the short term alongside
training for the in-house lawyers through that external drafter; -
introducing a concentrated
programme of professional development for in-house lawyers; -
exploring the demand for commercial
legal services and any unmet demand for legal services in the Assembly. The
outsourcing of drafting non-Government Bills was working well and enabled
lawyers to develop skills and knowledge in this area which would enhance
capacity within the team over time. Commissioners
agreed to continue with this approach, but wished to see options for increasing
the in-house legislative drafting capacity more quickly. It was recognised that
this may require an increase in resources. The Chief Executive and Director of
Legal Services would consider options and report to the Commission in due
course on the further steps taken. Progress
was being made in other areas, including the work that was underway to assess
the demand for more in-house commercial legal support and the increased
flexibility being seen across the service. The Directorate would keep
its strategy under review to make sure it was able to respond to and support
any significant changes affecting the Assembly, such as new financial powers. |
|
Progress with Machine Translation paper 3 Minutes: One
of the commitments in the Assembly’s Official Languages Scheme was to make the
best use of technology to help Assembly Members and staff carry out their roles
effectively. In November 2013 Commissioners had agreed to continue to work with
Microsoft to develop a Welsh-English / English-Welsh Microsoft translation
solution that would be made publicly available in 2014. Since
then quality testing had been carried out and a significant amount of data fed
into the system, including data provided by a number of bilingual
organisations. Guidance was being developed for Assembly Commission staff and
for Assembly Members and their staff to help promote the tool and increase
understanding of its appropriate use. The product would be launched at the
Assembly on 21 February, to coincide with International Mother Language Day.
From that date, the tool would be available to all Members, staff and globally
via Microsoft Office and other products. Officials were congratulated
on the rapid progress made with this project, which showed the Assembly leading
the way on the use of technology to support bilingualism. |
|
Omnibus Survey paper 4 and annex Minutes: To
inform the Assembly Commission’s work on public engagement and external
communications an opinion poll had been conducted in November 2013 collecting
data about the public’s knowledge of and engagement with the Assembly. The data
had been gathered as part of the quarterly Omnibus survey carried out by Beaufort
Research. The
results, which generally demonstrated limited public understanding of the
Assembly, were unsurprising although awareness amongst young people was lower
than expected given the significant efforts made in this area across the
education system. Commissioners agreed that further work was required to
establish the best way to collect this data in future, including whether there
was a more effective way of measuring young people’s knowledge of the Assembly.
Officials would look at tools that could be used to increase engagement, and at
the possibility of whether it might be better to work with an organisation
experienced in brand building or product development. Commissioners agreed that the
omnibus survey should not be repeated in March. They agreed to consider whether
to conduct further research next year, and the form that research should take. |
|
Corporate Performance Report paper 5 and annex Minutes: The second report showing progress against the
Commission’s Key Performance Indicators representing activity between April and
December 2013 showed that good progress had been made in number of significant
areas including the estate, ICT, Official Languages and taking forward the
Youth Engagement project. Performance could be seen to improve over the period in
terms of timeliness of the services provided and disruptions to committee/
plenary meetings. Commissioners asked for future reports to include an
indicator showing the percentage of papers published to mod.gov on time. Whilst improving performance could also be seen in
visitor numbers to the Assembly and in social media interactions, use of
Senedd.tv had fallen. Broadcast and
print media promotion of Assembly Committee reports had also fallen. It was
agreed that the indicator for public engagement would be reconsidered. Performance remained outside of target levels in
relation to reductions in energy usage.
Commissioners agreed that they would need to consider further investment
in sustainability, or revisit the energy reduction targets. The Corporate Performance Report would be published on
the Commission website and shared with the Assembly’s Finance Committee. |
|
Future ICT Services Project report paper 6 and annexes Minutes: In December 2013 Commissioners had requested regular
reports on progress with the Future ICT Services Project, including the
readiness assessment for transition towards in-house provision of ICT services.
The project remained on track and progress had been made in a number of
important areas including recruitment of key staff and knowledge transfer from
Atos. Officials were commended for carefully managing this
complex project and for their successes to date. Commissioners would receive
regular updates to inform their decision regarding the timing of the
transition. |
|
Paper to note - Draft Audit Committee minutes 7 November 2013 paper 7 Minutes: Commissioners formally noted
the minutes of the Assembly Commission Audit Committee meeting on 7 November
2013. |
|
Any other business Minutes: There
were no other items of business. The next Commission meeting would be held on 13 February
2014. Secretariat January 2014 |