First Minister Questions: Call For Investigation Into Possible Ministerial Code Breach

The below is the another in our now regular summaries of this week’s First Minister Questions session from Cardiff Bay. First Minister Questions takes place every Tuesday when the Assembly is sitting and can be watched live via Senedd.tv

For those who have never ventured onto the Senedd site, you can view the session the below was taken from here, that displays a video of the meeting (along with creation of your own clips!) plus by clicking the ‘meeting information and papers’ link you are able to view all the supporting documentation, along with a link to the full transcript.

Wrexham did not appear to get a mention this week.

Public procurement “not fit for purpose”

Leader of the Opposition, Paul Davies AM (Con, Preseli Pembs.) focused his attention on the Welsh Government’s public procurement record. In 2017, just £150million was spent through the National Procurement Service (NPS) compared to a target of £1billion. The NPS was even unable to repay a £5.9million Welsh Government loan. Why has NPS failed so badly and why were the Welsh Government “dithering and kicking another decision into the long grass” on its long-term replacement.

The First Minister said public procurement was under review and a slimmed-down NPS was one part of that, but he rejected “dreary old tropes”:

“Well, it’s a dreary old trope that the Member offers us week after week. I can assure Members that the review of the NPS has been led by the people who use that service….We do that precisely in order to
make sure that local economies are able to take advantage of public procurement, as we move to a situation where it is not the cheapest price, but the greatest value in the round for public expenditure that we get from the £6 billion worth of public expenditure that is carried out in this way each year.”
– First Minister, Mark Drakeford (Lab, Cardiff West)

Did Dafydd Elis-Thomas breach the Ministerial Code?

Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price AM (Plaid, Carms. E. & Dinwfwr) brought up the recent row over the appointment of a new head of the National Library, particularly whether the post-holder had to be a Welsh-speaker:

“….it’s become apparent that the (Deputy Minister for Culture, Dafydd-Elis Thomas) has opposed making Welsh language a requirement for the post of national librarian, contrary to your own government’s policy. E-mails between the Welsh Government and the national library….confirm that the Government had tried to make a deal in terms of the national broadcast archive, to bring pressure to bear on the library authorities not to make the Welsh language a requirement for the post.”
– Adam Price AM

A month later, the money for the broadcast archive was in the balance (though an agreement has since been reached), the question was asked did this “inappropriate influence” constitute a breach of the Ministerial Code and Nolan Principles on Public Life?

The First Minister disagreed,”Instead of relying on random notes of telephone conversations, let’s look to see what actually happened in this instance. The outcome that we have for the National Library for Wales is that we have a new national librarian who is a fluent Welsh speaker and competent to do the job. That’s what we actually have. And we have a new broadcasting archive located at the national library. That seems to me—. Those two facts appear to me to be far more powerful and testament to the way in which the Government has conducted this than the Member’s reliance on delving, as ever, far into the weeds of a matter rather than being able to recognise its substance.”

Adam Price AM replied: “disgraceful response from the First Minister to a perfectly valid question, which asked just for an adjudication from him. According to the code, we do have a right to ask him for a decision. He’s made his position clear, and I’m sure that we will return to this issue when more details emerge.”

Social media companies responsible for clamping down on abuse of women online

This afternoon was also an opportunity for AMs to put questions to Deputy Minister without portfolio, Jane Hutt (Lab, Vale of Glamorgan).

Joyce Watson AM (Lab, Mid & West Wales) raised the issue of abuse of women online. A recent review found that female politicians were disproportionate targets for such abuse, which she said was cowardly and detrimental to efforts to encourage women into public life.

Leanne Wood AM (Plaid, Rhondda) later described it as an “epidemic” and something she has personal experience of – though research suggests it now affects younger women to a greater extent than older women. Did the government agree that it should be recorded as a form of gender-based abuse?

The Deputy Minister said it was critical social media companies were properly held to account and she would tell the UK Ministers responsible to properly engage with them as it’s a non-devolved matter; “We cannot afford to let the bullies win” and the Welsh Government’s position is that abuse of candidates and holders of public office was intolerable, as was intimidation of voters.

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