Plaid Cymru criticise civil servant

Ieuan Wyn Jones is unhappy with Jon Shortridge

The Permanent Secretary to the Assembly, Jon Shortridge, is facing further criticism amid claims he failed to pass on legal advice to Plaid Cymru.

Ieuan Wyn Jones said he had "grave concerns" about Mr Shortridge's failure to disclose the advice.

He claimed that Plaid Cymru would have acted differently if the party had known about the legal advice.

The issue related to a Plaid Cymru motion which called for the Sustainable Development Unit to be transferred to the Policy Unit.

Plaid has claimed the advice in Mr Shortridge's possession told him that the Plaid motion was both legal and that it should be enacted.

AMs make decision, not civil servants, said Lord Elis-Thomas

According to Mr Jones, civil servants told Plaid that there were problems with moving the Sustainable Development Unit, but no mention was made of the legal advice.

Mr Shortridge had been criticised by the Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas for failing to implement the motion.

An Assembly spokesperson said: "It is my understanding that as far as the Permanent Secretary is concerned, when he spoke to Ieuan Wyn Jones and at the subsequent meeting of party leaders, there was never any question about the decision taken by the Assembly on 14 September needing to be implemented.

"It was because he takes decisions at the Assembly so seriously that he wanted to discuss with the leaders how the decision should be implemented."

Mr Jones rejected claims that he was trying to make the Permanent Secretary's position untenable.

Now, Mr Jones has written to Lord Elis- Thomas stating that legal advice relating to opposition party motions should be disclosed as a matter of course.

Last week, Wales's most senior civil servant was accused of challenging the authority of the democratic process and seeking to undermine the powers of the Assembly.

In a leaked letter obtained by the BBC Wales political programme Dragon's Eye the Lord Elis-Thomas accused Mr Shortridge of "serious impropriety".

It was the most recent in a series of battles between the National Assembly's political side and its supporting civil servants.

Eighteen months ago, Lord Elis-Thomas broke off relations with his own clerk and the Assembly's Counsel General.

Lord Elis-Thomas: latest in a series of disputes

The language of this latest letter could hardly be stronger.

It was written following a behind-the-scenes dispute between Lord Elis-Thomas and Mr Shortridge over the Assembly's policy on sustainable development.

The Presiding Officer believed the Permanent Secretary was failing to carry out the Assembly's instructions.

In the letter, Lord Elis-Thomas said this failure defied the will of the Assembly, representing a challenge by an official to the authority of the democratic process and sought to undermine the Assembly's powers.

He also accused Mr Shortridge of serious impropriety in seeking to question his authority to make decisions on behalf of the Assembly, something he said it was not the place of an official to do.