5. Urgent Question: Sport Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:20 pm on 29 March 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Gareth Bennett Gareth Bennett UKIP 4:20, 29 March 2017

The Sport Wales situation is now in danger of becoming a long-running bad-news story. The story proceeds in a series of unfortunate instalments, with the latest episode today rather conveniently occurring on the same day as the article 50 announcement. [Interruption.] Well, maybe they are, maybe they’re not. As the story has proceeded, various questions have arisen. Paul Thomas, the chairman: was he the most able applicant for the role or was he, as has been alleged in some circles, simply a Labour Party placeman? [Interruption.] Well, heaven forbid the thought. Was Mr Thomas dismissed because he tried to change the culture of the board because, as he declares, he was a whistleblower or something akin, or was he simply somebody who did not fit in, or someone who didn’t have a clear idea about how to manage the organisation? Now, I don’t know the answers to these questions, but the saga has gone on so long that I think something like the full story should now be told or, at least, as far as it can be told. I’m disappointed that you won’t be making the findings of the review public, although I appreciate that there may be confidential matters that have to be accounted for. But given the significant public money that has been invested in Sport Wales, we must ensure that the Government does learn lessons from this unfortunate sequence of events. So, my final question is: what lessons, Minister, do you think the Welsh Government has learned from this?