Voters set to get power to sack misbehaving Senedd members

Chris Haines - ICNN Senedd reporter

Voters would be given the power to remove Senedd members from office between elections under a new draft accountability bill published by the Welsh Government.

Julie James, who is counsel general, the Welsh Government’s chief legal adviser, announced publication of a draft member accountability bill in a written statement.

Voters would be given a say on whether to “remove or retain” a sitting politician through a “recall poll” and if a Senedd member was booted out, the seat would be filled by the next person on the party list, unless there are no more candidates or that the member recalled is an independent.

Under the draft bill, which was published today (October 6) following similar reforms in Westminster and Scotland, a recall poll would be triggered in one of two ways:

Conviction: If a politician was convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment, including a suspended sentence.

Misconduct: If the Senedd voted by a majority to hold a poll after a standards committee recommendation as a result of serious misconduct.

Before the Senedd can trigger a recall for misconduct, the standards committee would need to publish "recall guidance” setting out more detail.

To be successful, a simple majority of those who vote in the recall poll must vote to remove the Senedd member and the draft bill does not include a minimum turnout requirement.

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‘Own-initiative’

The power to recall politicians does not have an automatic start date and the draft bill states the system would come into force on a future date specified by Welsh ministers separately.

The draft bill also seeks to strengthen the Senedd’s standards of conduct committee, which is made up of politicians, and the role of standards commissioner.

The standards committee would become a permanent, legal requirement for every Senedd and independent “lay members” could sit on the committee for the first time.

Douglas Bain, the standards commissioner who investigates politicians in Cardiff Bay would be given “own-initiative” powers to launch investigations rather than rely on complaints.

The draft bill also includes a duty on Welsh ministers to prohibit false statements during election campaigns in an effort to tackle deliberate deception by politicians.

In a statement announcing the bill, Ms James stressed that the draft bill is subject to change before its formal introduction in the Senedd in the autumn.