The chair of the Welsh language public service broadcaster has been accused by MPs of acting as “judge, jury and executioner” and faces calls to be replaced after the dismissal of two female executives.
In a letter to the culture secretary on Wednesday, the chair of the Welsh affairs committee, Stephen Crabb, recommended the removal of Rhodri Williams as the crisis at the top of S4C deepened.
Writing to Lucy Frazer after a hearing, the Conservative MP said the committee was concerned about the ability of Williams to oversee the changes required and “given the importance of S4C and the scale of the challenges” they cited the “absence of cultural leadership at board level”.
Williams had attempted to draw a line under the crisis, which culminated in the sacking of the former chief executive, Sian Doyle, in November after allegations of bullying. The committee hearing was postponed from 12 December after Doyle was hospitalised for a number of days after being found “unresponsive” by her husband.
The chair of S4C, who will be reappointed or replaced at the end of his tenure in March, said an investigation revealed that Doyle had created a “culture of fear” at the broadcaster, which receives £89m in licence fee funding each year.
“The report makes it very clear where the responsibility for that lies,” Williams told the committee. “And I don’t think it is with me, and I don’t think it is with the board. The report states very clearly that the chief executive at the time acted in a confrontational, abusive, and inconsiderate manner.”
The report, commissioned by S4C after it received a letter of complaint about Doyle by the Bectu union in April last year, stated that the former CEO was “dictatorial [in] creating a culture of fear”, according to some of those giving evidence. It also criticised the chief content officer, Llinos Griffin-Williams, who was sacked after allegations of gross misconduct weeks before Doyle’s dismissal.
After publication of the report Doyle said she did not “recognise or accept the allegations”, adding that she’d had no notice that the report would be published and had not been offered a right of reply by S4C.
After her dismissal, Doyle wrote to Frazer calling on her to urgently investigate S4C and its chair, and told the Guardian she had been “hung out to dry” by the organisation.
Questioning Williams, the Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake said the lack of right to reply for the two executives named in the report was “concerning”, adding: “I think it is normal practice, just as a matter of natural justice, that people are given a chance to challenge or to respond to such allegations.”
Williams said that Griffin-Williams and Doyle were not given prior sight of the report because they were no longer employed by S4C. While S4C had also received legal advice about the dismissal of Doyle from Capital Law, there was a “Chinese wall” between the team undertaking the fact-finding exercise, and the different team providing advice, he said.
Asked by Crabbif the report “draws a line under [the] episode” and if there were no “outstanding grievance or appeals processes in play relating to the dismissal of the two individuals?”, Williams responded: “No.”
The Guardian understands that Griffin-Williams and Doyle have commenced legal action against the broadcaster on multiple grounds.
Williams was also questioned about the sacking of Griffin-Williams, who had a bullying complaint about the chair upheld. He said her sacking was unrelated to the complaint and due to gross misconduct that occurred after a Welsh rugby match in Nantes. She denied gross misconduct and comments attributed to her and said she had been dismissed without a fair investigation.
Crabb said: “As chair looks like you’ve been the judge and jury and executioner and Capital Law have provided you with the cover for it.”
In his letter to Frazer, Crabb said the committee was “not satisfied by the assurances from Mr Williams […] that the different complaints made against specific individuals had been handled equitably and with proper consideration of the fair treatment of all those involved”.
Williams, who began his tenure in April 2020 and will face further questions from the Welsh parliament on Thursday, also revealed that he had never met the culture secretary, to which Crabb replied: “Since your appointment as chair of S4C, you’ve not had a meeting with the secretary of state for culture, media and sport? I find that astounding.”
