Jump to content

Corruption in Wales

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Corruption in Wales takes place within the devolved public sector of Wales, which since 1999 has had its own Senedd, Welsh Government and public bodies, while sharing its criminal law, courts and police with England. Allegations of corruption and misconduct have arisen mainly at local government, NHS Wales and political finance level, mirroring the jurisdiction of the devolved settlement and the spending decisions that it covers.[1]

Oversight is carried out by Audit Wales and the Auditor General for Wales, who estimated in 2019 that fraud cost the Welsh public sector between £100 million and £1 billion a year, and by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, who handled more than 10,000 complaints about public services and councillors in 2023–24.[1][2] Policing, criminal law and the courts are not devolved to Wales, so allegations of bribery, fraud and misconduct in public office are investigated by police forces within the England and Wales system and prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service under UK-wide legislation that includes the Bribery Act 2010 and the Fraud Act 2006.[3]

The most prominent controversies of the devolution era include the appointment of commissioners to run Isle of Anglesey County Council in 2011, the £200,000 donation accepted by Vaughan Gething before he became first minister in 2024, which led to his resignation, and the repeated escalation of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board over more than a decade.[4][5][6] Transparency International does not assess Wales separately; in 2025 the United Kingdom scored 70 out of 100 in the Corruption Perceptions Index, and Welsh politicians have generally rejected comparisons with Westminster.[7][8] Failings identified by auditors and inspectors in Wales have generally concerned governance, accountability and transparency rather than personal enrichment, and the resulting interventions have been made under statutory improvement and escalation powers rather than through criminal proceedings.[9][10]

Governmental response

[edit]

Auditing of the devolved public sector is the responsibility of the Auditor General for Wales, who reports to the Senedd through Audit Wales.[11] In a 2019 report on counter-fraud arrangements, the auditor general, Adrian Crompton, estimated annual losses to the Welsh public sector at between £100 million and £1 billion, a range derived from the UK Cabinet Office's estimate that fraud accounts for between 0.5 and 5 per cent of public expenditure.[1] The report found that the Welsh Government prioritised investigation over prevention, and cited two successful prosecutions: the Dragon companies, which defrauded the European Union and the Welsh Government of £4.7 million through a ragworm processing venture at Port Talbot, and a temporary project manager at Powys Teaching Health Board who submitted bogus invoices worth £822,000 using false names.[1]

The National Fraud Initiative, which the auditor general runs in Wales under Part 3A of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004, identified £7.1 million of fraud and overpayment in its 2022–23 exercise, bringing cumulative outcomes in Wales to £56.5 million since 1996.[11][12] Earlier exercises identified £8 million in 2018–20 and £6.5 million in 2020–21, when a rise in ineligible claims for COVID-19 business support grants partly offset falls in other areas, and Audit Wales has reported that some Welsh councils review very few of the data matches they are sent.[12][13]

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales investigates complaints about public services and also acts as standards commissioner, considering complaints that councillors and members of the Senedd have breached their codes of conduct.[14] The ombudsman received 1,337 complaints about local councils in 2024–25, 54 per cent more than in 2019–20, and 315 code of conduct complaints; 60 per cent of those concerned town and community councillors and 56 per cent concerned the duty to promote equality and respect.[14] Serious cases are referred to the standards committee of the council concerned or to the Adjudication Panel for Wales, a tribunal that can suspend or disqualify councillors; the panels upheld the ombudsman's referrals in 85 per cent of the cases they considered in 2024–25.[14] In 2023–24 the ombudsman received 518 code of conduct complaints, a 16 per cent rise on the previous year, and commissioned an independent review of its own handling of them after a member of staff made political social media posts.[2][15]

Standards of conduct for ministers and members of the Senedd are set by the ministerial code and by the Senedd's code of conduct, both overseen by the Senedd's standards committees; former ministers must take advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments on appointments taken within two years of leaving office.[16] Local government is subject to the Local Government Act 2000 and to a code of conduct for councillors, and the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013, since renamed the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru etc. Act 2013, required community and town councils to publish their accounts, minutes and registers of members' interests online and placed the same duty on county councils, fire and rescue authorities and national park authorities.[17]

Sources

[edit]

Sources of corruption and misconduct in the Welsh public sector vary by institution. The areas below cover the domain-specific areas relevant to Wales.

Local government

[edit]

Town and community councils are the most frequent source of code of conduct complaints in Wales, accounting for 60 per cent of those the ombudsman could consider in 2024–25.[14] In 2024, a standards review commissioned by Newport City Council found that all 14 of the town and community councils in its area had failed to publish a compliant register of interests, that several registers were undated or unsigned, and that some councils confused registers of interests with declarations of interest made at meetings.[18]

The most serious failure at county level was at Isle of Anglesey County Council, where intervention by the Welsh Government followed a decade of political instability and disputes among members.[19][4]

Health services

[edit]

NHS Wales has been the subject of the largest interventions in devolved public services, which have been treated as failures of governance and leadership rather than as corruption.[9][20] The ombudsman received 949 complaints about health boards in 2024–25, a 26 per cent increase since 2019–20, and issues public interest reports on the most serious cases.[14][2]

Political finance

[edit]

Donations to political parties and campaigners in Wales are regulated by the Electoral Commission under UK law, and the ministerial code does not govern donations to members of the Senedd.[5] The most serious controversy of this kind concerned the £200,000 donated to Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign in 2024 by Dauson Environmental Group, a company whose owner had twice been convicted of environmental offences.[5][21] Rules on former ministers taking up outside appointments are set by the ministerial code and advised on by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.[16]

Lobbying

[edit]

Wales does not have a statutory register of lobbyists, unlike Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Westminster parliament, which each maintain one.[22][23] The Senedd's standards committee examined the case for a register in 2013 and again in 2018, concluding that there was insufficient evidence about how a register would work in practice, and the industry body Public Affairs Cymru maintained a voluntary register instead.[24][25] In 2019 the Welsh Government restricted professional lobbyists' access to ministers after a lobbyist attended a meeting between the economy minister Ken Skates and a broadband company, which the government attributed to a misunderstanding.[8]

Public procurement

[edit]

Emergency procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic was the largest single spending risk faced by the Welsh public sector. An Audit Wales review published in April 2021 found that the Welsh Government and NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership maintained national stocks of personal protective equipment and avoided the problems reported in England, including the "VIP lane" for politically referred suppliers, but that all 16 contracts in its sample were direct awards, nine contracts award notices were published after the 30-day deadline, and four named an intermediary rather than the actual contracting party.[26][27]

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry's 2026 report on procurement reached similar conclusions, putting Welsh pandemic spending on PPE at £385 million, finding "critical weaknesses" in distribution to social care and primary care, and describing the late publication of contract information as "of particular concern" given that only 35 direct award contracts were made in Wales.[28] The inquiry recorded that the Crown Prosecution Service had opened only one investigation into PPE procurement across England and Wales, concerning PPE Medpro Ltd, and that the Serious Fraud Office had received 195 referrals but brought no prosecutions.[28] The first minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth, told the Senedd that he welcomed the report and that the Welsh Government would respond within six months.[29]

History

[edit]

Public controversy over standards in Welsh public life has centred on local government, the health service and political finance since devolution,[30] and cases have been dealt with through statutory intervention, professional regulation and the courts rather than through a dedicated anti-corruption body.

1990s

[edit]

Lynette White

[edit]

Lynette White was stabbed to death in a flat in Butetown, Cardiff, on 14 February 1988. Three men, who became known as the Cardiff Three, were convicted of her murder in 1990 and released in 1992 when their convictions were quashed.[31] The reinvestigation that followed became the most expensive case of alleged police corruption in Wales: eight former South Wales Police officers and two civilians were prosecuted for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and DNA evidence identified the actual killer, Jeffrey Gafoor, in 2003.[31][32]

2000s

[edit]

Isle of Anglesey County Council

[edit]

A 2009 inspection by the Auditor General for Wales found "very serious failures" at Isle of Anglesey County Council, including poor behaviour by members and weak relationships between members and officers; the Welsh Government appointed a managing director and gave the council 18 months to improve.[19] Ministers concluded in February 2011 that some members did not want to recover, and the auditor was asked to re-inspect.[19] The re-inspection found that "the pursuit of power for its own sake or for the advantages that it can bring to individuals or the wards they represent has once again emerged", and the local government minister, Carl Sargeant, appointed five commissioners to run the council's executive functions in March 2011.[33][4] The intervention ended in May 2013, after elections produced a stable coalition administration and the auditor general agreed that the council could manage its own affairs.[34]

Operation Jasmine

[edit]

Operation Jasmine was a seven-year Gwent Police investigation into the neglect of residents at care homes in south-east Wales. It began in 2005 after a cluster of deaths, cost about £15 million, identified more than 100 potential victims and led to no prosecutions.[10] Margaret Flynn's 2015 review, commissioned by the first minister, Carwyn Jones, found that care providers had been "impervious to the needs of older people", that the agencies involved were characterised by "mistakes and errors of judgement", that reporting of pressure ulcers to protection of vulnerable adults teams was inadequate, and that the Crown Prosecution Service's view that the case would fail for lack of evidence of causation should have been tested before a jury.[10][35][30]

2010-2019

[edit]

Cardiff Three police corruption trial

[edit]

The prosecution of eight former South Wales Police officers over the original Lynette White investigation, described at the time as Britain's biggest police corruption case, collapsed at Swansea Crown Court in December 2011 when the court was told that files had been destroyed; the officers and two other defendants were acquitted.[31] The investigations and trials were estimated to have cost up to £30 million.[31] Reviews by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate found mistakes by officers in handling documents but no deliberate wrongdoing, and no public inquiry was held; the trial led to changes in how the Crown Prosecution Service handles disclosure.[36][32]

Cwm Taf maternity services

[edit]

Maternity services at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board were placed in special measures in April 2019 after a review by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives found services "under extreme pressure" with sub-optimal clinical and managerial leadership; the assessors said they could not be assured that care met national standards, that clinical audit was not working and that serious incidents had been under-reported for at least four years.[20] The health board's chief executive resigned in August 2019, and an oversight panel later examined 63 cases, finding that in 21 of them different management would reasonably have been expected to alter the outcome and that a third of stillbirths might have been avoided.[37][38] Maternity services left special measures in November 2022.[39]

2020 onwards

[edit]

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

[edit]

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which serves north Wales, was escalated to targeted intervention in November 2014 and placed in special measures in June 2015 over governance, mental health services, maternity services and out-of-hours primary care.[9] It left special measures in November 2020, but returned to them in February 2023, when the health minister, Eluned Morgan, said she had serious concerns about its performance, governance, leadership and culture; the Welsh Government removed the executive board and appointed a new chair and independent members.[6] The board entered its third year in special measures in February 2026, with Audit Wales reporting strengthened corporate assurance but continued concerns about operational performance.[40][41]

Carwyn Jones

[edit]

In 2020 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments concluded that the former first minister Carwyn Jones had breached the government's business appointment rules by joining the global advisory board of GFG Alliance, the parent company of Liberty Steel, because of the access to sensitive commercial information about the steel industry that he had during the 2016 steel crisis.[16] Jones denied wrongdoing and criticised the process for having no appeal, and the first minister, Mark Drakeford, decided that no disciplinary action was necessary, accepting Jones's assurance that he would be recused from steel matters.[16][42]

Vaughan Gething

[edit]

Vaughan Gething received £200,000 in two payments from Dauson Environmental Group during his successful campaign for the Welsh Labour leadership in 2024; the company's owner had twice been convicted of environmental offences, and the firm was awaiting a Welsh ministerial decision on a solar farm on the Gwent Levels.[5] Mark Drakeford concluded that the ministerial code did not cover donations to members of the Senedd, which were regulated by the Electoral Commission, and that Gething had not broken the code, but the issue dominated his four months as first minister.[5][21] Plaid Cymru ended its co-operation agreement with the Welsh Government, and Gething lost a non-binding confidence vote in the Senedd by 29 votes to 27 on 5 June 2024, refusing to resign.[21] Four ministers resigned from his government on 16 July 2024 and Gething announced his resignation as first minister the same day, saying that claims of wrongdoing were "pernicious, politically motivated and patently untrue".[43][44]

Lobbyists' register

[edit]

On 17 June 2026 the Senedd passed a motion, moved by Reform UK and amended by the government, supporting the creation of a statutory register of lobbyists and asking the successor standards committee to take the work forward; the motion was supported by members of all parties.[22][23] Wales remained the only nation of the United Kingdom without such a register at the time of the vote.[23]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 "Welsh public services could lose up to £1 billion a year to fraud". Audit Wales. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 "Complaints to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales at record high". Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. 15 August 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  3. ↑ "Criminal justice and devolution". Institute for Government. 3 April 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "Auditors advise Anglesey take-over". Local Government Chronicle. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Vaughan Gething cleared of code breach over £200k donation". BBC News. 27 February 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board placed into special measures after 'serious concerns'". ITV News Wales. 27 February 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  7. ↑ "United Kingdom". Transparency International. 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  8. 1 2 "Welsh election 2021: Where do the parties stand on lobbying?". BBC News. 17 April 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 "Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board oversight and escalation framework". Welsh Government. September 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 Flynn, Margaret (May 2015). In Search of Accountability: A review of the neglect of older people living in care homes investigated as Operation Jasmine (PDF) (Report). Welsh Government. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  11. 1 2 "The National Fraud Initiative in Wales 2022-23". Audit Wales. 24 October 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  12. 1 2 "£8m of fraud and overpayments detected in Wales through National Fraud Initiative". Audit Wales. 12 October 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  13. ↑ "£6.5 million of fraud and overpayments identified by National Fraud Initiative in Wales". Audit Wales. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "Complaints to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales continue to rise". Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. 14 August 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  15. ↑ "Complaints to Public Services Ombudsman for Wales jump 43% in single year to record levels". Local Government Lawyer. 19 August 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  16. 1 2 3 4 "Ex-FM Carwyn Jones accused of breaching ministerial code". BBC News. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  17. ↑ "Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru etc. Act 2013", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 2013 c. 4, retrieved 21 September 2026
  18. ↑ "Welsh community councils rapped over non-compliant registers of interests". Local Government Lawyer. 22 April 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  19. 1 2 3 "Writtten Statement – Isle of Anglesey County Council". Welsh Government. 17 February 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  20. 1 2 Review of Maternity Services at Cwm Taf Health Board (PDF) (Report). Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Royal College of Midwives. April 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  21. 1 2 3 "Welsh leader Gething loses symbolic confidence vote". Reuters. 5 June 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  22. 1 2 "7. Reform UK Debate: Statutory register for lobbyists". Senedd Cymru. 17 June 2026. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  23. 1 2 3 "No opposition has made a faster start in the Senedd's history". Institute of Welsh Affairs. 6 August 2026. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  24. ↑ "Welsh assembly lobbyists face tighter scrutiny but no register". BBC News. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  25. ↑ "Welsh lobbying register 'needs more thought'". BBC News. 11 January 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  26. ↑ Procuring and Supplying PPE for the COVID-19 Pandemic (PDF) (Report). Auditor General for Wales. April 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  27. ↑ "Welsh Government and NHS Shared Services responded well in challenging circumstances to source Personal Protective Equipment". Audit Wales. 14 April 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  28. 1 2 Module 5 Report: Procurement (Report). UK Covid-19 Inquiry. 14 July 2026. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  29. ↑ "Written Statement: UK Covid-19 Inquiry Module 5 Report". Welsh Government. 14 July 2026. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  30. 1 2 "Reflections from the Flynn report on the neglect of older care home residents in south Wales". Senedd Research. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  31. 1 2 3 4 "Lynette White case: Police officers' trial collapses". BBC News. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  32. 1 2 "Lynette White corruption trial 'errors but no wrong doing'". BBC News. 16 July 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  33. ↑ "Plans to remove Anglesey council commissioners revealed". BBC News. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  34. ↑ "Anglesey council: Ministers hand control back to councillors". BBC News. 23 May 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  35. ↑ "Operation Jasmine: Care home doctor 'should have been prosecuted'". BBC News. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  36. ↑ "IPCC satisfied over Lynette White police corruption inquiry". BBC News. 30 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  37. ↑ "Q&A: Cwm Taf maternity problems". BBC News. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  38. ↑ "One in three babies at scandal-hit Welsh hospitals could have survived". The Independent. 5 October 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  39. ↑ "Cwm Taf Morgannwg maternity services out of special measures". BBC News. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  40. ↑ "Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board special measures (level 5): year 3 progress report". Welsh Government. 5 March 2026. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  41. ↑ "'Long way to go' for NHS board's special measures". BBC News. 4 March 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  42. ↑ "Former FM Carwyn Jones will not face action over alleged breach". BBC News. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  43. ↑ "Vaughan Gething's leadership in peril as four Welsh ministers resign". The Guardian. 16 July 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  44. ↑ "Wales's First Minister Steps Down After Rising Pressure From Colleagues". The New York Times. 16 July 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Corruption_in_Wales&oldid=1378312557"