Senedd Members rebuked for calling 20mph limit a ‘blanket’ restriction

Emily Price 

Four Senedd Members from different political parties have been chastised by the Presiding Officer for referring to Wales’ 20mph default limit as a “blanket” speed restriction.

Llywydd Huw Irranca-Davies issued the reprimands to a Welsh Conservative MS, a Reform MS, a Plaid Cymru MS and a Green Party MS, during a Reform UK led debate on the controversial road policy on Wednesday (September 30).

Welsh Conservative MS for Bangor Conwy Môn Janet Finch-Saunders was the first to face a telling off from the Presiding Officer when she said her party had been the first to say no to the “20mph default, blanket”.

Irranca-Davies intervened, reminding Finch-Saunders that there was a “clear ruling” in the last Senedd that describing the default speed limit as a “blanket” policy was inaccurate.

He said: “Janet, can I just make clear to you that the standards commissioner and others have ruled on this and that ‘blanket’ is not appropriate?”

Shortly after the exchange, Gŵyr Abertawe Gwyn Williams was also forced to apologise when he too used the word “blanket”.

As soon as he uttered the word, the Plaid Cymru MS appeared to realise his mistake, throwing his hands in the air and quickly adding: “I shouldn’t say that, sorry!”

Reform MS for Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd, David Mills, was the next to make the blunder, calling for the Welsh Government to focus on dangerous driving rather than imposing a “blanket limit across the entire country”.

Before calling the next speaker, the Llywydd warned that he didn’t expect Members to repeat the word “blanket” when there had been a clear ruling in the previous Senedd on the terminology around the 20mph default speed limit.

Irranca-Davies said: “Members are being, by and large, very good in sticking to the terminology of this debate, but please don’t try my patience.”

However, immediately after the Llywydd’s warning, Green Party MS for Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf, Paul Rock, was called to the floor – and referred to the speed restriction as a “blanket” limit.

Realising his mistake, Rock covered his mouth and apologised, saying: “Sorry. I do apologise. It’s in my notes. I didn’t mean to say it. It’s really hard when I didn’t realise!”

In August, the Llywydd came under fire when he refused to confirm whether politicians could once again use the term “blanket” to describe Wales’ 20mph default speed limit.

It came after Reform’s UK’s group in the Senedd began using the term on the social media.

Nation.Cymru asked the Senedd whether use of the word when describing the 20mph default speed limit was still prohibited, and if Irranca-Davies would prevent MSs from using the term in the Chamber.

However, we were issued with a “no comment” response, leading to some MSs becoming confused about whether they could use the term again.

The Welsh Conservatives had used “blanket 20mph” as a central attack line against the previous Welsh Labour Government following the roll out of the speed limit in September 2023.

The policy saw significant public pushback including a record-breaking Senedd petition which clocked up hundreds of thousands of signatures.

However, the Tories were forced to stop using the “blanket” term due to formal rulings by the Senedd’s Standards Commissioner Douglas Bain that they were bringing Wales’ parliament into disrepute.

It was argued that because councils had the power to introduce exemptions and keep some roads at 30mph, the 20mph default speed limit was not a “blanket” policy.

In an initial investigation in January 2024, the Senedd’s watchdog cleared then-Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies of breaching the code of conduct.

Bain explained that while the word “blanket” was inaccurate, being “imprecise and inaccurate is not synonymous with being untruthful,” as it lacked deliberate deceit.

However, by September 2024, Bain took a harsher stance against Tory MS Natasha Asghar accusing her of “flying in the face of the committee’s report” because she continued to use the phrase on social media despite knowing that a formal ruling had already declared it false.

Asghar, who was the shadow transport minister at the time, was subsequently officially censured by the Senedd.

In October 2024, Bain reinvestigated Andrew RT Davies after he posted another tweet using the term “blanket”.

The Standards Commissioner concluded that Davies had breached the code of conduct and brought the parliament into disrepute.

Bain’s rulings saw the Senedd’s previous Llywydd Elin Jones issue a directive to all Senedd Members not to use the word when debating the 20mph default speed limit in the Chamber.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.