Top civil servant tells AMs they can't see leak report

Assembly members have been told that despite voting for the publication of a report that found there was no leak of a cabinet reshuffle, it will not be released. The reshuffle involved the sacking of Carl Sargeant, who was found dead days later.

The opposition motion calling for the report's publication, with names of witnesses redacted, was carried after Labour AMs abstained. The Welsh Government has maintained that the Assembly cannot instruct the most senior civil servant, the Permanent Secretary, what to do.

She's Shan Morgan, who was asked by the First Minister to carry out the investigation, after allegations that he or his advisers had leaked advance news of Carl Sargeant's sacking. Ms Morgan has now written to AMs.

In her letter, she tells them that it would not be appropriate to release any details about who was interviewed during the investigation or the information given.

Shan Morgan does go so far as to explain how leak inquiries are carried out. She delegates responsibility to the Welsh Government's Chief Security Officer and the conclusions of the investigation and the final content of the report itself "are solely for him". He found that there was no evidence of "prior unauthorised sharing of information".

Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies has claimed that the Permanent Secretary's letter is part of what he's called the Welsh Government's "persistent stonewalling".