Government Response: The Local Election Survey (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

Merit Scrutiny point 1: It was not considered necessary to conduct a full equality impact assessment as there is no change in the policy underpinning these Regulations. As set out in the Explanatory Memorandum, the requirement to conduct the survey is prescribed in legislation, including the questions to be asked when undertaking the survey.

Whilst it would have been legally compliant to use the previous survey contained within the 2012 Regulations for the May 2022 elections, it was felt appropriate to test the questions to establish whether they remained appropriate.

As part of this engagement process, it was clear there were some issues in terms of the language used in that previous survey in respect of equality and diversity. This was explored further with stakeholders to ensure the language used in the survey reflected current appropriate language.

It is intended that there will be a full evaluation of the survey arrangements including the approach and contents following the completion of the 2022 survey. At this point a full set of impact assessments will be undertaken to inform future policy.