Senedd recommends concealing details of family hired as staff

SENEDD members have recommended concealing information about politicians giving jobs to their colleagues' family members despite a clear conflict of interest.

- CHRIS HAINES

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 10 (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 four 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. Neither of the other committee members, Mick Antoniw and Tom Giffard, have family members employed by themselves or other politicians.

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.