Friday, July 25, 2025
A lack of transparency
The news site says that when the Senedd expands to 96 members next year, politicians will be banned from giving jobs to their own family members – which has been commonplace over the past 26 years. But a loophole will remain allowing politicians to employ each other’s family:
More than 15 of the current 60 Senedd members (25%) have employed family members, directly or indirectly, in the past and ten (16%) currently do so.
Now, the Senedd’s standards committee, which handles complaints against politicians, has suggested the names of family members be withheld from the public register of interests.
However, half of the politicians who sit on the committee that made the recommendation themselves have family members employed by colleagues at a cost to the public purse.
Labour committee chair Hannah Blythyn is married to Laura Murton who is employed by first minister Eluned Morgan – according to the current, more open register – and Peredur Owen Griffiths’ spouse Angela has a job with his Plaid Cymru colleague Sioned Williams.
All meetings as part of an inquiry into declarations of interests were held in private, with the public and press excluded, and many of the related documents were declared secret.
Ms Blythyn and Mr Owen Griffiths did not recuse themselves nor declare an interest as the committee finalised its recommendations, according to records of latest meetings.
Their family ties were not mentioned in a 9,000-word report on the behind-closed-doors inquiry but reference was added retrospectively after a journalist raised concerns.
The pair flagged their interests at one earlier meeting but the transcript and video showed this was not in the public declarations part at the start of nearly every committee meeting. Instead, the declaration was made in private then disclosed in brief minutes weeks later.
In the report, Ms Blythyn wrote: “The committee was mindful of the need to minimise the release of information about family members, simply for being related to an elected member.
“To that end, we agreed publishing the names of family members employed by other members on the register was an unnecessary risk to their safety.”
Details would be provided to officials but hidden from public view. The nature of the relationship would still be disclosed although the name would not.
I wonder sometimes why politicians make things harder for themselves by hiding these things when people are going to find out anyway. Transparency was meant to be the raison d'etre of devolution. It seems we are still struggling to achieve it.
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Close that loophole. If the politicians want to serve Wales, nepotism is not the answer.Promoting ordinary Welsh people to apply for the jobs is. Campaign on that.
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