Former Senedd member Neil McEvoy wrongly used taxpayers' resources worth thousands of pounds for political purposes, an inquiry has concluded.
An investigation by the Senedd's standards commissioner found that the former South Wales Central MS delegated political work to staff employed by the Senedd, used his publicly-funded office for campaign group meetings, used his Senedd office to interview people for a political role, and used electricity and equipment paid for from the public purse at his office to print and fold thousands of leaflets.
The probe also found that a member of the former MS's staff sent "two abusive messages" to someone who it was likely would be a witness in the investigation "in an attempt to persuade them not to give evidence" to an investigation into the former Plaid politician.
Standards Commissioner Douglas Bain found there was "no direct evidence that Mr McEvoy directed or was at the time even aware" of the abusive messages but called on the Senedd to consider making it an offence to interfere in such a way.
"Had this misconduct been in relation to a civil or criminal court case rather than the investigation of a complaint it would have most likely have been dealt with as either contempt of court or an attempt to pervert the course of justice," he said.
The Senedd's cross-party Standards Committee, which has published Mr Bain's report along with its decision on the appropriate sanction, said it intended to recommend changing the law to make interfering in a Senedd standards inquiry an offence.
In relation to the use of taxpayer-funded resources, it concluded Mr McEvoy had shown a "wilful and persistent disregard of the provisions of election guidance, general election guidance and the Rules and the Code [of Conduct for Members of the Senedd]". It also "noted a lack of contrition".
It quoted the finding of the commissioner that Mr McEvoy's conduct had cost the taxpayer at least £3,450 as a low-level estimate and said that it did not have the power to force him to repay it but invited him to do so.
The committee also criticised Mr McEvoy for claiming there were "glaring errors" in the Commissioner's report but not providing any corrections or evidence when being asked to do so. It said his claims had led to a delay in the matter being considered.
It said it noted that "the commissioner had questioned the reliability of both Neil McEvoy and the complainant" and had not relied on their evidence and only upheld a complaint where the was corroborating evidence.
It concluded Mr McEvoy would have been excluded for two weeks if he had remained a Senedd Member.
Standards commissioner Mr Bain has also written to the Senedd authorities to raise concerns about the lack of requirement to record hours work by MSs support staff and said the lack of "an appropriate system of control" meant there "is a real risk that [support staff] could be used improperly for party political and election work".
Mr McEvoy questioned the timing of the publication of the report before May's council elections in Cardiff, where he represents the Fairwater ward. He said he had "started asking questions the powerful did not want put".
"The standards process is rotten to the core, as my secret phone recordings proved," he said, referring to recordings he made of former standards chief Sir Roderick Evans during the investigation into him.
"The Welsh establishment got what they wanted for the time being: a compliant Welsh Parliament, which barely deserves the title. Propel is growing in strength and the future for real opposition in Welsh politics. Watch this space."
The standards process in Wales means that the standards commissioner carries out an investigation and presents findings to the cross-party standards committee which has published the report. The commissioner decides the facts and whether complaints are upheld. The committee's role is to decide a punishment.
Neil McEvoy was elected as a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member in 2016 for South Wales Central, but very publicly fell out with the party during his term and ended it as an independent Senedd member after being excluded from the party. He attempted, but failed, to be re-elected in 2021. He remains a Cardiff councillor and has formed a Welsh nationalist party called Propel.
The report follows years of investigations into a series of complaints about Mr McEvoy. His conduct in his term in the Senedd between 2016-2021 was credited with a huge rise in complaints about Senedd members, you can read that story here.
The Senedd's standards commissioner has said that a "very low estimate of the total cost of Mr McEvoy's misconduct" in misusing Senedd resources was £3,450, calculated by working out the cost of staff paid by the Assembly but working on political matters, as well as printer hire, printing, electricity, heating and light.
A second report has also been published which found Mr McEvoy failed to declare an interest in two petitions being discussed at a petitions committee of which he was a member, and that he had breached the integrity principle.
Due to the length of time the investigation has taken, what is now known as the Senedd is also referred to as the Assembly in the documents published online. There are strict rules about using Senedd resources and staff only for Senedd business and that election or campaigning materials and projects have to be carried out separately. Politicians are bound by rules and a code of conduct about their behaviour.
The background
The standards commissioner's report shows that in October 2017, a former case worker and office manager for Mr McEvoy complained to Sir Roderick Evans - then the standards commissioner - about Mr McEvoy.
He made a series of allegations, many of which were not upheld because of the lack of corroborating information.
The standards commissioner at the time, Sir Roderick Evans, held 12 hearings, totalling 39 hours, with witnesses questioned by the complainant and in some cases Mr McEvoy. On July 5, 2019, Mr McEvoy said he was withdrawing from the process later telling Sir Roderick it was because of "the amount of time he had already spent dealing with the complaint, the time he would in future have to spend on it, Sir Roderick’s alleged bias, the complainant's alleged political agenda in making the complaint and the endemic culture in the Assembly of resources being used for party political purposes."
Sir Roderick resigned in November 2019 and Douglas Bain took over as acting commissioner, he has since been given the job on a permanent basis. He then met with Mr McEvoy’s legal adviser in January 2020 and interviewed Mr McEvoy on February 11, 2020.
What the commissioner found
Mr Bain found concluded Mr McEvoy contravened the code of conduct for Members of the Senedd. He said it was up to the Senedd's standards commission to decide if the breaches were "a member making a number of errors about what use of Assembly resources was permissible or whether the extent of the contraventions demonstrates a wilful and persistent disregard of the provisions of the Election Guidance, the General Election Guidance, the rules and the code."
He said it was not possible to quantify the financial loss to the Senedd Commission. "I am clear that there was no direct financial gain by Mr McEvoy although the services provided free of charge to Plaid Cymru election candidates, including Mr McEvoy, would undoubtedly have been of assistance."
"Overall, £3,450 would be a very low estimate of the total cost of Mr McEvoy's misconduct".
He calculated that by adding up how much time staff who were being paid by the Assembly to complete Assembly-related work spent on election or campaigning work, as well as printer rental, printing, electricity use, internet, heat and lighting. Among his findings were that:
- The commissioner found proved Mr McEvoy caused or permitted 3,000 election campaign leaflets for the Grangetown ward by-election to be printed on November 1, 2016. Also on April 7, 2017, approximately 980 double sided election direct mail letters for the Riverside ward were printed and two days later, 980 double sided direct mail letters for the Riverside ward. On April 27, 2017, 2,000 election leaflets for the Riverside ward were printed on the Assembly printer at his regional office. All were "caused or permitted" by Mr McEvoy. The commissioner said: "On the four instances I have found established a total of approximately 8,920 sheets of election campaign material were printed on the Assembly printer between November 1, 2016 and 27 April 27, 2017. The amount paid out of Mr McEvoy’s OCA for that printing was approximately £89."
- The commissioner found that on four occasions (November 17, 2016, December 14, 2016, January 12, 2017, January 31, 2017) Mr McEvoy caused or permitted his regional office to be used for formal meetings of the Plaid Cymru Cardiff Campaign Group contrary to the rules "In his formal response to the complaint sent to Sir Roderick on April 6, 2018 Mr McEvoy falsely denied that any formal party political meetings had been held at his regional office. Despite that untruthful denial Mr McEvoy now admits this conduct of which there is overwhelming oral and documentary evidence".
- He also found his regional office with Assembly staff was used for election matters, before the General Election in 2017
- Between January 17 and March 17 he "caused of permitted" his regional office to be used for the weekly meeting with Assembly staff to discuss election matters
- Mr McEvoy allowed Assembly rooms to be used to interview candidates for a political, not Assembly, role and used s room in the Assembly for formal campaign meetings for election planning
- He employed a member of his Assembly staff, being paid by the Assembly Commission, to carry out party political and election campaign work and despite claiming the unnamed person was working on Assembly business "despite being given ample opportunity, Mr McEvoy was unable to produce even a single example of Assembly related [redacted] had carried out." "Only one, a single page invitation letter to a public meeting about illegal riding of motorbikes in Cardiff, which it could possibly be argued was Assembly related."
- Mr McEvoy allowed [the complainant] to carry out party political or election work for a six month period, while he was paid by the Assembly Commission. The commissioner says there is an "abundance of evidence" that the staff member sent a "significant proportion" of his time when he was paid by the Assembly carrying out political work
- Between December 28, 2017 and March 16, 2016, a campaign printer was kept at his regional office to print political and election documents. "The campaign printer was in fact moved from the regional office [to the staff member's garage] on March 27, 2017 as a direct result of Mr McEvoy realising that the CCTV cameras were recording all the improper use of his regional office including the use of the campaign printer
- Mr McEvoy allowed a document folding machine to be kept at his regional office and used for party and election campaigning
- He kept 30,000 "highly party political newspapers and thousands of party political direct mail letters to be stored at the regional office". The commissioner said: "When in a message on January 6, 2017, Mr McEvoy was made aware that a member of member services would be visiting his office on 9 January he ordered that the documents be moved the following day. At interview Mr McEvoy told me that he ordered the removal of the documents because they shouldn’t have been there and didn’t want Assembly staff to see them".
- A member of Cardiff Plaid Cymru staff was based at his regional office for two months in early 2017 and a staff member put election leaflets into envelopes at the regional office
- Election placards were stored at the regional office and he used electricity paid for by the Commission to process political or election campaign documents
The people involved
The Commissioner says there are two "conflicting accounts" of what took place and there are allegations and counter-allegations between both parties. The commissioner said "I do not regard [the complainant] as an entirely reliable witness" who has "now accepted full responsibility for what he described as his repeated and in some cases, flagrant, misuses of Assembly resources".
"By way of mitigation he pointed out that this was his first job in politics; that he took his lead on what was acceptable from Mr McEvoy; that he managed the regional office in accordance with Mr McEvoy’s instructions; and that when he raised his concerns with Mr McEvoy he was told that all Members used resources in the same way".
On Mr McEvoy, the commissioner said: "I have also had regard to Mr McEvoy’s reliability and credibility. I was not impressed by either."
He said: "At the hearings and at his interview Mr McEvoy often tried to avoid giving direct answers to straightforward questions and on occasion, when pressed, gave answers which he must have known were absurd and untruthful."
Referring to answers under oath given by Mr McEvoy about an incident before a Grangetown by election, he said: "[Mr McEvoy's] his explanations are simply not credible and demonstrate Mr McEvoy’s willingness to offer any explanation, however absurd, in an attempt to avoid the consequences of his misconduct."
He goes on to say: "Much of the alleged misconduct of which [the complainant] complains relates to what he says took place at the regional office whilst he was the office manager and responsible to Mr McEvoy for the proper conduct of that office. Mr McEvoy said that he was rarely at his office and trusted [the complainant] to run it in accordance with the provisions of the code...Mr McEvoy struck me at interview as a forceful individual who was very focussed on the importance of effective campaigning and the efficiency of his regional office. Whilst it may be the case that he was not aware of the details of every occasion on which his office was used for non-Assembly work I find it inconceivable that he was not well aware that such use was taking place. "
He also contested Mr McEvoy's comments that he was a new MS and did not know the full rules. "Mr McEvoy had been a councillor since 2008 and must have been aware on the restrictions on the use of council resources for party political purposes which are very similar to the restrictions imposed by the Code and the rules. It is hard to understand how he would not have expected similar restrictions to apply".
The abusive messages
Within the commissioner's report, reference is also made to the conduct of another member of staff. Their name is not given. The detail is redacted, but it says that in 2018, that person sent "two abusive messages" to someone who it was likely would be a witness in the investigation "in an attempt to persuade them not to give evidence".
When asked, they admitted to Sir Roderick sending the message but did not apologise. Then in November that year, a third party was asked to contact someone "likely to be a witness" and "to make clear they did not need to give evidence". The unnamed third party did so, and text messages were forwarded "in an attempt to persuade [name redacted] not to give evidence.
The commissioner says there is "no direct evidence that Mr McEvoy directed or was at the time even aware" but said he became of one instance on August 9, 2018, and the other on January 14, 2019.
He said: "Had this misconduct been in relation to a civil or criminal court case rather than the investigation of a complaint it would have most likely have been dealt with as either contempt of court or an attempt to pervert the course of justice. Regrettably, these options are not available. The committee may wish to consider whether there is need for legislation to allow interference with witnesses to an investigation by the commissioner to be dealt with as a criminal matter."
What the Standards Committee found
The standards committee met five times to look at the results of Mr Bain's inquiry and Mr McEvoy also attended.
"After careful consideration the committee concluded that the extent of the infringements on the part of Neil McEvoy MS with regard these matters did demonstrate a wilful and persistent disregard of the provisions of Election Guidance, the General Election Guidance, the rules and the code."
The standards committee said Mr McEvoy had shown a "lack of contrition" and said it was "not acceptable" for him to say there were "glaring errors" in their report but not correct them when offered.
On the money lost, the committee does not have the power to require Mr McEvoy to repay it but "invites" him to do so.
"In reaching its decision on a sanction the committee also noted that despite being offered the opportunity to correct factual inaccuracies in the report with the commissioner in accordance with the complaints procedure, Neil McEvoy MS did not avail himself of the opportunity. It is not acceptable for a member to inform the committee that there are ‘glaring errors’ in the Commissioner’s report, but not to have provided any corrections or evidence to the contrary when invited to do so".
The committee found a breach and said he would be suspended for 14 days. However, Mr McEvoy was not re-elected to the Senedd despite standing in the 2021 election. He remains a Cardiff councillor.
A spokesman for Cardiff council said: “The Council is aware of the Senedd findings which relate to a misuse of Senedd resources in 2016 and 2017. This is a matter which has been dealt with by the Senedd. To date the council has not received any complaints about Cllr McEvoy breaching the Cllr Code of Conduct in relation to this matter.”
The Electoral Commission said it was aware of the standard committee’s report and their job is to regulate parties and campaigners, but not matters relating to candidates. The regime for candidates and agents, is enforced by the police.
The second report
A second report has also been published into 15 complaints against Mr McEvoy failing to declare a relevant interest before taking part in two meetings of the Senedd's petitions committee discussing a new Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.
Mr McEvoy was a member of the petitions committee which looked at two petitions relating to the proposed centre. Ahead of both being discussed he declared his interest in getting the best cancer care possible in South Wales but failed to declare he had strongly and publicly opposed the plans for it to be built on the Northern Meadows site.
He has been a member of the "Save the Northern Meadows" Facebook group and the "Save the Whitchurch Meadows Facebook group" for months before the committee meeting and attended an event there on June 20, 2020 making a video expressing his "strong opposition" to building plans. He shared that on social media and wrote to Government ministers opposing it, also sharing that letter online. In July, he asked people to sign his petition about building on green field sites, and tweeted on August 26 and 27 that he did not think it was an appropriate place to build the new hospital.
At 6.38am on September 15, 2020, hours before the petitions committee met, he shared a Facebook post of his concerns.
He later told Mr Bain he did not "feel I had an interest to declare".
In his report, the standards commissioner said: "In September 2020, 66 complaints were made to me alleging that at a meeting of the Petitions Committee on 15 September 2020 Mr McEvoy had failed to declare the same relevant interest before participating in proceedings on the same two petitions. After investigation I found that Mr McEvoy had contravened the relevant provisions".
"Mr McEvoy also asserted that the complaints were party political, that I had reduced the complaints process to a farce, that I was not impartial and that I was unfit for office. These scurrilous allegations against me are denied. Mr McEvoy offered no evidence that the complaints were party political which would in any event have been irrelevant," the commissioner writes.
The commissioner found Mr McEvoy had an interest he should have declared and that failing to do so "fell well below the standard rightly expected of Members. He failed to conduct himself in a manner which tended to maintain and strengthen the public's trust and confidence in the integrity of the Senedd and brought the Senedd into disrepute. I am satisfied that Mr McEvoy breached the Integrity Principle".
This report was looked at by the standards committee formed in the Sixth Senedd, after the election where Mr McEvoy was not re-elected and thus not a Senedd member. The committee also found a breach but said because he is no longer an MS no action can be taken.
Mr McEvoy and the complainant were contacted for comment.
Mr McEvoy said: "The publication just before the council elections brings an end the planned complaints and stitch ups which began when I started asking questions the powerful did not want put.
"The standards process is rotten to the core, as my secret phone recordings proved. I actually listened to people discuss a lack of credible evidence and then talk about how officials were open to making sure my appeal was thrown out, before it was made. It is no coincidence that the main complainant now works for the Plaid Cymru member of the Senedd who replaced me.
"The Welsh Establishment got what they wanted for the time being: a compliant Welsh Parliament, which barely deserves the title. Propel is growing in strength and the future for real opposition in Welsh politics. Watch this space."
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