The number of complaints against Senedd Members in 2022-23 increased by 61% compared with the previous year according to the annual report of the Senedd Commissioner for Standards which was published today.
Despite this increase, it was still the second lowest number of complaints in the last four years.
Of the 71 complaints received between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, 31 were about matters that the Commissioner had no power to investigate, whilst 27 were about the failure by Members to notify minor changes to their registered interests within the period of four weeks allowed.
Eight of the remaining complaints were about conduct on social media whilst the other five were about misuse of Senedd resources.
The percentage of inadmissible complaints received fell from 80 in 2021-22 to 49. It is likely that this was due in part to the introduction in July 2022 of new more user-friendly Guidance on the complaints process.
Twenty-five of the 30 admissible complaints received were about breaches of a minor nature. In each case, as the Member had admitted the breach, apologised for it and corrected it where possible, the Standards of Conduct Committee agreed with the Commissioner’s recommendation that no further action be taken.
Investigation reports on three of the five other admissible complaints were submitted to the Committee. In the case of two complaints, the Commissioner’s opinion was that there had been no breach: in the other his opinion was that the Code of Conduct had been breached. The Committee agreed with all three opinions.
The investigations of the two complaints that were ongoing at 1 April 2023 have now been completed and submitted to the Standards of Conduct Committee for their consideration and decision.
For a second year there were no complaints made about a Member by another Member in an attempt to score political points.
Senedd Commissioner for Standards, Douglas Bain said; “As the figures show the conduct of almost all Members of the Senedd continues to be of a high standard.
“Although the number of complaints increased, other than relatively minor breaches, only one Member has been found to have breached the Code of Conduct.
“I welcome the fact that once again there were no complaints by a Member against another Member. I believe that this was due to a more mature understanding by Members that the complaints process is intended to safeguard the high standards of conduct which they should all aspire to and that it should not be abused in an attempt to score party-political points.”
The main duty of the Commissioner is to investigate and report on complaints that a Member has broken the provisions of the Code of Conduct or certain other documents. By law, the Commissioner is prohibited from giving information about any particular complaint.
The cost of running the Commissioner’s office depends on the number and complexity of complaints received and investigations undertaken. The 11.3%increase in expenditure in 2022 -23 was due almost exclusively to the cost of investigating one complaint.
The report gives information on other work undertaken by the Commissioner and complaint related statistics for the last five years.
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