Health Minister Eluned Morgan to be reprimanded over driving ban

Wales' health minister is to be reprimanded after she was banned from driving for repeatedly speeding.

Members on the Welsh Parliament's standards committee called for Eluned Morgan to be censured by the Senedd, saying her behaviour fell short of the standards expected.

But it stopped short of calling for the more serious punishment of a ban from the Senedd.

Ms Morgan and the Welsh government have declined to comment.

She has apologised "unreservedly" after she was banned from driving for six months and fined £800 at Mold Magistrates Court in March.

Before the conviction Ms Morgan was found to have committed speeding offences on three other occasions in September 2019, June 2020 and April 2021.

The Member of the Senedd (MS) for Mid and West Wales' censure will be put to the Senedd for a vote - a motion that is unlikely to be rejected.

MSs said the motion will be an "opportunity for the member to apologise for her conduct to the Senedd as a whole".

The findings of the cross-party standards committee follow an investigation by the Welsh Parliament's Standards Commissioner Douglas Bain, who found the minister showed "a disregard for the law and a failure to take action to avoid repetition of unlawful conduct".

"Receiving a driving ban and the associated fine for speeding offences is a serious matter," the committee said in a report.

"The number of offences over a relatively short period of time, which led to this conviction, shows a pattern of behaviour that is below the standard expected of a Member of the Senedd."

The committee agreed that she had broken the code of conduct, including rules requiring MSs to uphold the criminal law.

This saga has been particularly embarrassing for Eluned Morgan's boss, the first minister, who called for Boris Johnson to resign over Partygate saying "law makers can't be law breakers".

That statement came back to haunt Mark Drakeford subsequently, though he insisted there was "no equivalence" between the two criminal offences.

Eluned Morgan's opportunity to repeat her apology in front of her Senedd colleagues will likely come next week.

She'll be hoping that draws a line under this story.

First Minister Mark Drakeford chose not to take further action against Ms Morgan when he considered the matter under the separate ministerial code process earlier this year.

He said she did not uphold the high standards expected, but accepted her apology.

The Conservatives said the "discrepancy between the first minister and the committee clearly emphasises the need for an independent arbitrator on the ministerial code".

Mr Bain's report reveals a trail of emails sent by Ms Morgan to the commissioner.

In an email in March entitled "I wish to refer myself to the commissioner", she informed Mr Bain of her driving ban.

Two days later she wrote another email to say she was not referring herself, saying she was anxious to ensure he was aware of the situation.

Mr Bain's investigation was instead triggered by a complaint made by someone else.

Under current rules the standards commissioner cannot launch investigations members refer themselves or a third party complains.

The report said this is inconsistent with other parliaments in the UK which allow standards watchdogs to start initiate investigations.

The committee also said it was a "matter of regret" that Mr Bain's report was released to the media before the committee had completed their consideration of the complaint.

BBC Wales reported the findings of Mr Bain's investigation before it had been published earlier this year.

A censure is a formal reprimand which registers the Senedd's disapproval of a member's behaviour, but does not result in further action.

In the previous Senedd term several Senedd members were banned for short periods of time over their conduct, including Rhianon Passmore after failing to give a breath test, and Michelle Brown for a racial slur.

Mr Bain's own report into his investigation was not included with the committee's public findings, as is usually the case with standards committee reports, despite a reference to his findings being listed in the document's table of contents.