Welsh Assembly members face tougher sanctions for disrepute

There have been high-profile incidents involving AMs Bethan Jenkins, Keith Davies and (left) former AM Mick Bates

Assembly members could be suspended without pay if they misbehave in future under tougher sanctions being proposed.

Members who breach their code of conduct may also face having their rights and privileges as AMs withdrawn, says a standards committee report.

The only sanction now available is a censure motion - a formal reprimand - unless AMs commit work-related financial misconduct.

The committee said there was widespread support for the new rules amongst AMs.

All 60 members were consulted.

There have been a number of high-profile incidents where AMs have been judged to have breached the members code of conduct.

They include the Plaid Cymru AM Bethan Jenkins, who apologised after being found guilty of drink-driving earlier this year and was censured by the assembly.

Labour AM Keith Davies was censured in 2012 after a drunken incident at a five star hotel in Cardiff Bay while he was staying there at the assembly's expense.

And in 2010 the former Liberal Democrat AM Mick Bates was convicted of punching a paramedic during a drunken night out in Cardiff following a sitting in the Senedd.

The report follows a recommendation by the independent standards commissioner Gerard Elias QC for the institution to review its procedures.

The committee said they were putting forward the new sanctions "in the hope and expectation that they will rarely, if ever, need to be exercised".

Standards committee chair Mick Antoniw said: "The committee's recommendations demonstrate our commitment to a National Assembly where members are accountable for their actions if they fall below the high standards expected of them by the people who elected them.

"These amendments to the sanctions regime would bring assembly procedures more in line with those in place in other UK legislatures, and the committee is pleased with the response and support we received from the presiding officer, assembly members and the standards commissioner for this report."

The recommendations will now be considered by the assembly's business committee.

If the proposals are agreed then amendments to assembly rules must be approved by at least a two-thirds majority of voting members in the assembly chamber.

The assembly does not have the legal power to expel a member for misconduct.

However, under the Government of Wales Act, any member sentenced to more than 12 months in custody for an offence automatically loses their seat in Cardiff Bay.