Priorities for the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee

The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee was established on 28 June 2016. The remit of the Committee is broad and covers a large number of significant policy areas, including:

• local government;
• housing, community regeneration, cohesion and safety;
• tackling poverty;
• equality of opportunity and human rights.

Short term

In the short term, we have agreed to undertake a piece of post-legislative scrutiny work on the implementation of the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, which will begin in the autumn term, and we will be consulting separately on this.

Medium to longer term

Over the coming months, we will be putting together our work programme and identifying priorities for the medium to longer term. We want to make sure that our work spans the breadth of our remit, while also being responsive to matters of public interest as and when they arise.

To help us in our planning, we are keen to hear from stakeholders over the summer about the issues you think we should be focusing on, and we will consider your responses early in the autumn.

We have had an initial, informal, discussion and identified a number of areas that we may wish to include in our longer term programme.  These are set out in the consultation document, and it would be helpful to have your views on these.

Please send your views to: SeneddCommunities@assembly.wales by Friday 2 September 2016.

Invitation to contribute to the consultation

The Committee would like to invite you to submit written evidence to assist with the inquiry. The Committee welcomes responses in Welsh or English from both individuals and organisations.

Submissions should be no longer than five sides of A4, with numbered paragraphs, and should focus on matters set out above. Please see guidance for those providing evidence for committees.

Disclosure of information

Please ensure that you have considered the Assembly’s policy on disclosure of information before submitting information to the Committee.