Senedd Commission and Standards Commissioner won’t release full findings into role of Andrew RT Davies’ wife Julia
Former Standards Commissioner Sir Roderick Evans refused to accept a complaint from the Senedd Commission, saying he was satisfied Julia Davies worked the hours she was contracted to as the Welsh Conservative leader’s PA and reasearcher
THE Senedd Commission and Wales’ Standards Commissioner are refusing to release their full findings of investigations into how much work Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies’ wife has done as his PA.
Both have looked at concerns about the level of work Julia Davies has done as her husband’s PA and researcher since 2007. As a “band one” staff member, she has a salary of up to £35,182.
The Commission, which is the body which manages Wales’ Parliament, conducted an investigation in which it took evidence from Mr Davies and referred its findings to the Standards Commissioner.
The Standards Commissioner looked at the referral but he ruled it was not an admissible complaint as he was satisfied Mrs Davies “works the hours she is contracted to work and carries out a role which falls within the necessarily broad range of duties an AMSS [Assembly Member Support Staff ] might be reasonably asked to carry out”.
Both bodies are refusing to release any information about the work as part of the investigations in 2018.
Last year the Western Mail spoke to five individuals who had worked for the Welsh Conservatives in a variety of roles over the period that Mr Davies had employed his wife.
Some occupied significant jobs in the party machinery and all said they did not have as much interaction with Mrs Davies as would be expected for someone who was PA to the party leader at the time they worked there.
One person said she “didn’t even realise” that Julia Davies was employed by her husband.
She said: “When I did have dealings with his office I personally never spoke to her and never worked with her. As far as I was aware, a different woman was his personal assistant.”
At the time, Mr Davies told us the allegations were untruthful and were politically motivated ahead of an internal party ballot for places on the Welsh Conservative list for the South Wales Central region at this year’s Senedd election.
In January this year we were contacted by a credible source who told us that in 2018 the then Assembly Commission investigated allegations that Mrs Davies had undertaken little or no work.
That investigation was launched after the Commission received a Freedom of Information request asking for details of Ms Davies’ work – specifically how many unread emails she had in her Assembly account, how many emails she had sent, when she had last logged in and how many times she had used her pass to enter the Assembly estate.
The Commission responded to the FoI request saying that the first three questions could not be answered because the then Assembly did not “hold” information relating to elected members’ staff email accounts within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act.
The remaining question could not be answered because to do so would breach GDPR Regulations and the Data Protection Act.
However, our source told us that following the investigations, which included input from Mr Davies, the matter was referred by Clerk to the Senedd Manon Antoniazzi to the then Standards Commissioner for the Senedd, Sir Roderick Evans. The Standards Commissioner ruled the complaint was inadmissible and it has not been investigated again since.
Neither the Senedd Commission nor the Standards Office would comment or provide any details of the investigations when we approached them.
However a representative for Mr Davies provided us with the conclusion made by the former Standards Commissioner when he refused to accept the complaint.
It read: “I am satisfied that your wife works the hours she is contracted to work and carries out a role which falls within the necessarily broad range of duties an AMSS might be reasonably asked to carry out. Accordingly, I have concluded that [individual’s] referral is not an admissible complaint within the prescribed procedure and I am, therefore, closing the file on this matter”.
Under the Standards Commissioner’s process, he will only accept a complaint if “it appears that there is enough substance to justify further investigation”.
The Senedd Commission confirmed it held documentation relating to its inquiry when we submitted a two-part Freedom of Information request asking if there had been such an investigation, for any relevant reports compiled and whether the matter was referred to the Standards Commissioner.
In its reply to us, the Commission said it “can confirm we hold information relating to your request”.
However, it said that both parts of our request involved personal data and were exempt from disclosure under GDPR rules.
It went on to say that the Commission had considered our representations that the staff member was a relative of the politician and a different test should therefore be applied, but said that as Ms Davies did not have a public-facing role she was exempt from scrutiny.
We appealed against the decision not to disclose the reports or the correspondence between the Clerk to the Senedd Commission and the former Standards Commissioner.
The official who considered the appeal confirmed that additional information relevant to our FoI request had been identified, and that “[there] is, undoubtedly, some public interest in the information sought by this request”.
But she upheld the original decision against disclosure, concluding that “legitimate interest does not outweigh the interests and rights of the individuals concerned”.
A spokeswoman for the Senedd Commission said: “We won’t be offering any statement at this point on this matter.”
A spokesman for the Senedd Commissioner for Standards said: “Section 9(b) of the National Assembly for Wales Commissioner for Standards Measure 2009 states that any referral to the Commissioner by the Clerk must be treated as a complaint.
“Section 16 of that Measure prohibits the Commissioner from disclosing information about any complaint that may, or may not, have been received.”
We put all the allegations to a spokesman for Mr Davies. We asked him four questions:
■ Were you aware that such an inquiry had been undertaken by the then Assembly Commission?
■ Did you make a written submission to the inquiry?
■ What evidence do you have that Julia has done work for you, beyond the fact of her employment?
■ Were you aware that the Commission had referred the matter to the Standards Commissioner?
He would only say: “As an employer, Andrew takes his legal responsibilities and the wellbeing of his staff incredibly seriously and does not comment on politically-motivated FoI requests directed at past or present members of his team.”
When we approached Mr Davies last year before our story based on the comments from party staff who worked with Mr Davies and had had less contact with Ms Davies they would have expected to with the PA to a party leader, he said that the comments were politically motivated ahead of an internal party ballot for the Welsh Conservative South Wales Central regional list.
He said: “Julia does not work out of the Senedd and instead works from the regional office and home, which given the occupancy of Senedd offices in a working week would be a pattern replicated by most other constituency and regional staff employed by members from any political group.
“Due to my severe dyslexia I struggle when it comes to reading and composing emails and dictate correspondence to all three of my staff members, who then send emails on my behalf (one of which is doing so right now). Up until Covid-19 I hadn’t turned on a desktop computer during the whole of this Assembly term.”
He added that the statements from the Welsh Conservative insiders who spoke to us were “untruthful”.
“I think any follower of Welsh politics would struggle to argue against the fact that I am the most active Welsh Conservative MS by any measure,” he said.
“From visits to WAQs to chamber contributions – and certainly the most followed on all social media. That’s nothing to do with me but the hard work and commitment of all of my staff, past and present.
“I have had a loyal and dedicated full-time team with different members of staff during this Assembly who would all confirm the untruthful nature of the statements you’ve collated.”
Following our request for comment, one of Mr Davies’ staff, Chris Thorne, said: “I’ve worked for Andrew since 2014 in various capacities and happy to confirm that this [the comments from party insiders we emailed Mr Davies] is a load of nonsense!”