Deliberate deception should be offence for Senedd politicians and election candidates, says standards committee
The law in Wales should be strengthened to prevent and punish politicians and election candidates who deliberately lie, the Senedd's Standards of Conduct Committee has said.
In a report, Individual member accountabiilty: deliberate deception, the committee specifically called for changes to legislation to make it an offence for a Senedd candidate or election agent "to make or publish deliberately deceptive statements/information for the purposes of affecting how a vote is given at the election".
The committee also said the Welsh Government should explore ways of requiring election candidates who have made or disseminated deliberately deceptive statements to correct the record.
According to the committee, any corrections should be made with "equal prominence to the inaccurate statement", "made at the earliest opportunity", and "published on the voter information platform for transparency".
It also recommended the Welsh Government broaden the Wales Act 2006 to stipulate that any conduct order made under section 13 of the Act may include a provision for "deliberate deception".
This would ensure that the issue of deliberate deception is considered in the conduct orders made for future elections, the report said.
The committee also recommended tighter rules for elected members, including a call to amend the part of the Code of Conduct for MSs that requires members to "act truthfully".
This part of the Code should be changed to "expressly state that members must not make deliberate misleading statements" and to require those who make factually incorrect statements to correct the record at the earliest opportunity" the report said.
Alongside this, the committee suggested amending the standing orders and associated guidance to introduce a two-stage formal process for members to correct the record.
This process would include:
- A procedure to allow members to voluntarily, or at the request of another member, correct the record/withdraw statements in cases of unintentional and minor inaccuracies;
- A requirement for members to correct factually incorrect statements at the earliest opportunity when required to do so on the recommendation of the Commissioner for Standards, via a 'correction notice';
- A requirement that corrections are published with equal prominence to the inaccurate statement; and
- A provision that failure to comply with a correction notice is a breach of the Code of Conduct and sanctioned as deceptive conduct by the member.
In cases where members breach the Code, the committee recommended that any reports published on the breaches, as well as correction notices, should be published on the individual MS's online Senedd profile.
Other recommendations included a call for laypeople to be allowed to sit on the Standards of Conduct Committee, as well as boosting the Standards Commissioner's powers to allow them to initiate their own investigations rather than waiting for complaints to be submitted.
Hannah Blythyn MS, Chair of the Senedd's Standards Committee, said: "Our report is putting forward recommendations to radically enhance our rules and make it clear to anyone who wants to hold public office that deliberately deceiving is not acceptable.
"By strengthening the law governing elections, toughening our Code of Conduct and giving more power and independence to those investigating complaints, we can start to rebuild public trust in our political institutions and support a parliament fit for the future."
Adam Carey
