Civil servant’s TV firm links review

THE head of Wales’ Civil Service has launched a review into the management of a senior civil servant’s links to a TV production company that received a £4m Welsh Government loan.

The review will consider how “potential conflicts of interests were managed” in former Welsh Government deputy director Natasha Hale’s roles with TV firm Bad Wolf, first on secondment, and then as the organisation’s interim chief operating officer.

Bad Wolf, which is part-owned by Sky and HBO, has a pipeline of ambitious television productions for its new Cardiff studios, including the highprofile adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

The £4m loan came to light when it emerged that the directors of Bad Wolf had paid themselves £1.8m in their first 18 months, despite making a pretax loss of £2.8m.

While with the company on secondment, Ms Hale became a director and shareholder in a joint venture with Bad Wolf called Creative Screen Alliance.

The Welsh Government said that it advised Ms Hale to relinquish the directorship while she was still a civil servant. Yet there are no records at Companies House of Ms Hale ceasing to be a director.

In a statement, Bad Wolf said that the Welsh Government’s statement was inaccurate: “Natasha Hale closely followed all official advice from Welsh Government.

“All correct HR and compliance procedures were adhered to throughout and she will happily comply with any review. Creative Screen Alliance Wales has never traded and request to close was made to Companies House in July 2017.”

We went back to the Welsh Government, who referred us to their original statement and said it would be inappropriate to comment further.

A spokesman for Welsh Government, Permanent Secretary Dame Shan Morgan, said that the review would consider “the management of any potential conflicts of interest relating to a former Welsh Government civil servant and a private company”.

He added: “It would be inappropriate to comment further.”

In September 2016, during her secondment to Bad Wolf, Ms Hale jointly set up a private company with Bad Wolf called Creative Screen Alliance Wales Ltd. The two directors of the company were Ms Hale and one of Bad Wolf’s directors, Jane Tranter.

We asked the Welsh Government whether it was content for Ms Hale to be a director and shareholder of this private company while still technically a civil servant.

A spokesman responded: “We were notified of this and advised Natasha to stand down.”

In its statement yesterday, Bad Wolf robustly rejected this and said Creative Screen Alliance Wales never traded.

In July Ms Hale and Ms Tranter requested the company be wound up.