Fabrication of Trawscymru Bus passenger Data by the Welsh Government. SWP Investigation : Occ 210011

Copies Welsh Senedd Members, Welsh MPs

Dear Lee Waters,

I have read your contribution to the Debate on Transport on 29/09/2021 in which you mentioned Transport only once when you said “”We do have serious plans for modal shift, for improving public transport “”

Of course you did not elaborate on those “serious plans” and the “same old cliche” “modal shift”. The remainder of your contribution was a rude diatribe and not worthy of a Government Minister in which you said the following.

(1) “trying to divide based on falsehoods”

(2) “powering Facebook algorithms over the summer, getting themselves very excited based on false facts. “

(3) “I don’t think they’re interested in the facts; they’re interested in winding people up instead of confronting the hard choices that we, as a society, have to face “

(4) “These are serious times, they require serious politicians to give serious thought and serious responses “

(5) “they run for the hills every time, behind the same old cliches, and it is becoming tiresome,”

(6) “they’ve got to face up and grow up, otherwise they should shut up, because this is not constructive to the challenge we face as a Government .If Members think that’s unparliamentary language, I could say a lot worse, frankly.

“Your contribution to the Transport Debate brought to mind the conclusion of Greta Thunberg regarding the contribution of politicians as “blah blah blah” There was not a single constructive comment from you and certainly no plan for Transport.

I was particularly interested in your comments in relation to “falsehoods”.”false facts” and “not interested in the facts” in view of the false statements and false facts you presented in July 2019 in both a press release and a written statement to the Senedd.. The false statements were that “”Passenger numbers increased by 45% across the Trawscymru Network in 2018-2019 due largely to the success of the Free weekend Travel Scheme”” These statements made by you were completely untrue and based on the fabricated figures for the T2,T3 and T4 services presented in the Trawscymru 2018-2019 Annual report. You are fully aware that your statements were untrue yet you do nothing to provide the truth to the Welsh Public and Senedd.

T2 Service 2017-2018 345,814 passengers 2018-2019 691,628 passengers increase +20% ?? The writer of the Trawscymru 2018-2019 Annual report.decided to calculate a 20% increase for the T2 in order to make the combined increase percentage for T2/T3 to above 100% !!! However the writer did not pay attention at school.

T3 Service 2017-2018 131,040 passengers 2018-2019 238,948 passengers increase +82% The writer of the Trawscymru 2018-2019 Annual report wished to have a massive increase for the T3 service which was untrue.

T4 Service 2017-2018 443,645 passengers 2018-2019 550,672 passengers increase +24% . The writer of the Trawscymru 2018-2019 Annual report added in 6 months of T14 passenger numbers to the T4 2018-2019 passenger figure.to provide an inflated figure for the T4 Service

The writer of Trawscymru 2018-2019 Annual report has committed an act of “Misconduct in Public Office” which South Wales Police have been investigating for the past 6 months with apparently no cooperation from the Welsh Government .

Since early 2021 I have repeatedly asked the First Minister to investigate these figures which are grossly inaccurate but he has refused to do so. These fabricated figures were used as justification to continue the Free Weekend Travel scheme in 2019-2020 at a cost of £1 Million even though the 2017-2018 Annual report 2 years earlier had shown that the scheme was unsuccessful. Following the 2017-2018 Annual report a total of £2 Million has been wasted in the 2 years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 .

Both yourself and the First Minister are in Breach of the Ministerial Code for not correcting the incorrect statements made by yourself in July 2019. What made this episode doubly distasteful was the fact that the Trawscymru 2018-2019 Annual report was not published until the first week of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 so that the public and Senedd Members had no opportunity to see that your July 2019 statements were completely untrue. Both yourself and the First Minister are therefore complicit in covering up “Misconduct in Public Office” by Welsh Government Officials.

Both yourself and the First Minister have “got to face up and grow up”. Both yourself and the First Minister should sit down with a piece of paper and write down 100 times “These are serious times, they require serious politicians to give serious thought and serious responses “.

I look forward to 3 things from you

(1) Immediate cooperation from the Welsh Government with the South Wales Police investigation

(2) A statement by you which corrects your false statements that “”Passenger numbers increased by 45% across the Trawscymru Network in 2018-2019 due largely to the success of the Free Weekend Travel scheme

(3) Correction of the figures for the T2,T3, T4 services in the 2 Trawscymru Annual reports (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) residing on the Welsh Government website.

If these 3 things do not happen then both yourself and the First Minister are in Breach of the Ministerial Code.

I have written separately to DCI Claire Lamerton requesting that a Senior Police Officer contacts the First Minister in order to get cooperation of the Welsh Government with the South Wales Police investigation, I have also made a similar request to Sir Keir Starmer.

Kind Regards,

Dr John Mctighe