PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL is inviting applications for a citizen to serve as a Lay Member on its Governance and Audit Committee. This vital role contributes to the oversight and accountability of the council’s operations.

Committee responsibilities include:

• Reviewing and scrutinising the council’s financial affairs.
• Assessing and improving risk management, internal control, performance assessment, and corporate governance.
• Making reports and recommendations to the council or relevant committees on the effectiveness of these systems.
• Additional statutory functions.

Candidate requirements
Applicants must demonstrate a strong understanding of the audit process and a commitment to values such as accountability, probity, openness, independence, fairness, and sound financial management within the public sector.

Ineligibility criteria:
Individuals cannot apply if they:

• Are currently a member or officer of any local authority.
• Have served as a member or officer of any local authority within the last 12 months.
• Are a spouse or civil partner of a member or officer of any local authority.

Appointment process
The successful candidate will be selected by a panel comprising an Independent Chair, three council members, and one community council member. An allowance will be provided for attendance at committee meetings.

Application details
Applications from all sections of the community are welcome. The closing date is 10 January 2025.

For a full role description and an application pack, contact Lydia Cheshire on 01437 775356 or via email at [email protected].

SENEDD Members criticised the Welsh Government’s new “light-touch” approach to oversight after a feud involving senior museum managers cost taxpayers more than £750,000.

Mark Isherwood raised alarm about the response to the dispute between Roger Lewis and David Anderson, the former Museum Wales president and director-general respectively.

Mr Isherwood, who chairs the public accounts committee, warned the Welsh Government’s new “light-touch” model for reviewing public bodies could lead to similar issues elsewhere.

The Tory criticised a decision to pause tailored reviews of arm’s-length bodies in the wake of the Museum Wales settlement, which cost the public purse £757,613 amid claims of bullying.

“To then move to self-assessment of public bodies is wrong when this has instead illustrated the need for more rigorous audit controls,” he told the Senedd.

Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price echoed his concerns, adding: “Surely we should be going in the opposite direction. What we need to have is more rigorous auditing, overview and oversight.”

Leading a debate on a report into the dispute, Mr Isherwood said the public accounts committee was extremely concerned by wholly unsatisfactory grievance procedures.

He said seeking to settle was preferable to an employment tribunal, which would have cost north of £1m, but the committee was dissatisfied with the rationale for the figure arrived at.

He warned: “Indeed, the auditor general for Wales concludes that the museum had not been able to demonstrate that it acted in the best interests of the public purse.”

Mr Isherwood, who represents North Wales, criticised ministerial advice that did not set out the cost of the settlement, placing the then-culture minister in an “invidious” position.

Mr Price told Senedd Members the prolonged internal dispute at Museum Wales resulted in paralysis of decision-making processes for many years.

He said: “Despite awareness of serious failures of governance since, I believe, 2020, the Welsh Government’s intervention lacked timeliness, transparency and allowed it to fester.”

Mr Price pointed to similar governance problems at other public bodies, including Sport Wales, Natural Resources Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr health board and fire services.

He warned: “That is eroding public trust, which means that public services cannot be delivered in the way that they should be. And so we need to strengthen the governance frameworks. We need not a system of self-assessment.”

The former Plaid Cymru leader questioned the decision to appoint Mr Lewis, the former museum and WRU president, to lead a review of Cadw following the row.

Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan, who worked at the museum until 2021, criticised ministers’ “hands-off” approach, suggesting lessons were not learned from Sport Wales in 2017.

She denounced the Welsh Government’s “inadequate” response to the report, which rejected a recommendation to urgently review arm’s-length bodies’ grievance policies.

Ms Fychan said: “This is a very important report and a sad reflection and a very sad chapter, not only in the history of Amgueddfa Cymru but also the Welsh Government.”

Responding to the debate on November 27, Jack Sargeant, who was appointed culture minister in September, was confident lessons have been learned.

He said a comprehensive review of the “Managing Welsh public money” guidance, which has not been updated since 2018, should be completed by December 2025.

A SENEDD Member called for reform of the way the Welsh Parliament handles backbench legislation after pulling a mental health bill that received cross-party support.

James Evans announced the withdrawal of his standards of care bill, which aimed to replace outdated mental health legislation, in a statement to the Senedd on November 27.

The Conservative called for change to processes for backbench bills, which are proposed by Senedd Members who are not part of the Welsh Government.

Mr Evans, who represents Brecon and Radnorshire, won a ballot to introduce the legislation and Senedd Members unanimously backed the bill at the first stage in December 2023.

But, withdrawing the bill, he warned backbenchers face extremely difficult challenges in introducing legislation that is fit for purpose and serves people across Wales.

He said: “A guiding principle for me, since I’ve come here, is that we shouldn’t introduce legislation … that is defective and that I don’t think meets the needs of the people we serve. So, for that reason, I’ve decided to withdraw my bill.”

The Senedd has not passed a backbench bill since legislation on safe nurse staffing levels, which was introduced by the Liberal Democrats’ Kirsty Williams in 2013.

Warning the bill would take two years or more to develop, Mr Evans said: “Not many of us come into the Senedd with fully fledged law written, done, and all the regulation-making done around it – it simply doesn’t happen ….

“We’re not the government, we don’t have all the civil servants and the expertise but I do think it is something … we really do need to look at – how we improve this process.”

Mr Evans also pointed to the new UK Government bringing forward a mental health bill, saying it is important that parts of the legislation work on a Wales-and-England basis.

He urged the new “future Senedd committee”, which is examining reforms for the next term from 2026, to look into greater opportunities for backbench legislation.

Sarah Murphy, Wales’ mental health minister, was disappointed by the withdrawal of the bill but hopeful many of its aims will be achieved through the UK legislation.

Plaid Cymru’s Mabon ap Gwynfor similarly regretted withdrawal of the Welsh bill, saying it was a significant step forward in addressing serious deficiencies in mental health law.

Warning the Senedd too often falls short in living up to the promises of devolution, he added: “It shouldn’t be the height of our ambition here to simply wait for Westminster.”

Elin Jones, the speaker or Llywydd, said the Senedd’s business committee will be beginning a review of legislative processes at its meeting on December 3.