5. Will the Commission make a statement on its ICT policy for the sixth Senedd? OQ56681

The Commission’s policy is to provide secure and adaptable ICT services that allow Members, their staff and Commission staff to work efficiently and flexibly. By way of example, all users have the option to select mobile devices to support flexible working and Commission applications and information can be accessed via a cloud service.   

I'm grateful to the Presiding Officer for that. I was profoundly shocked to read section 2 of the policy, where it states very clearly that the Senedd Commission may without notice check and make and keep copies of all information, which includes, but is not limited to, telephone calls and any electronic communications, stored information, data sent, received created or contained within the Senedd ICT system. These are extraordinary intrusive powers that the Senedd Commission seems to have granted itself, and far more intrusive than would be available to either the police or the security services, if they were investigating criminality without seeking judicial approval. And, it appears to me, that this level of potential spying or snooping on elected Members, doing their work on behalf of the people of Wales, is wholly and completely unacceptable. I would ask this Senedd Commission to urgently withdraw this part of the policy, rewrite this policy, with the collaboration and cooperation of Members, and then we can have a policy that all of us feel a part of, and where we don't feel that we're being treated as criminals. 

I can assure Members of this Senedd that they are not treated as criminals, neither does the Commission use any of this guidance for the purposes of spying or snooping, and I'm comfortable then in working with Members and Commissioners to give the reassurance, and to review this policy, if needs be, and, therefore, we can do that. But this policy is in place to both protect Members and, also, to ensure, if investigations of abuse of any kind or criminal behaviour have been undertaken by any Member or member of staff, that there is the ability to look into that information. But the ability to do that is done in light of restrictions that we have placed on ourselves, and it's not, in any way, any fishing exercise that can happen by the Commission. But, as I said, I'm perfectly happy, now that it's been raised in questions here, to provide any reassurance and to review, if necessary.