Top ‘quangocrat’ Dame Elan Closs Stephens gets third term as Electoral Commissioner

Martin Shipton

One of Wales’ most prolific “quangocrats” and public sector troubleshooters has, in a highly unusual move, been appointed to a third term as the Electoral Commissioner for Wales.

Usually commissioners serve for a maximum of two terms, but Dame Elan Closs Stephens will now keep the role for a further two years.

Electoral Commissioners are appointed by the King. A statement issued by the House of Commons said: “The current term of office of Dame Elan Closs Stephens, the … Commissioner with special responsibility for Wales, comes to an end on March 12 2025.

“Dame Elan Closs Stephens has served as an Electoral Commissioner since March 13 2017. A letter of July 9 2024 from John Pullinger, Chair of the Electoral Commissioner, asked the Speaker’s Committee to consider whether to recommend the re-appointment of Dame Elan for a further, final term of two years. We considered this letter at our first meeting of the new Parliament on December 4 2024.

“John Pullinger told us that he supported Dame Elan’s re-appointment as she has been an effective and valuable Commissioner, bringing significant experience of electoral processes through her breadth of experience as a board member. He said that she had ‘brought deep knowledge of the political environment in Wales and is well respected among stakeholders’. John also noted that Elan’s strong contribution to the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee had been especially valuable.

“We consulted the Llywydd of Senedd Cymru [Presiding Officer Elin Jones MS] on Dame Elan’s re-appointment and, having considered this feedback, agreed to recommend Dame Elan for re-appointment, subject to the statutory consultation with party leaders. An extension to Dame Elan’s term would mean that she would be serving on the Commission Board for the next Senedd election in 2026.

“Section 3(2)(b) of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, as amended, also requires that the proposal to appoint (or re-appoint) a member of the Electoral Commission be the subject of consultation with the registered leader of each registered party to which two or more Members of the House of Commons then belong. Mr Speaker accordingly wrote to the leaders of the qualifying parties on February 3 2025 about the re-appointment of Dame Elan. No objections or concerns were received in response to the Speaker’s consultation.

“Appointments to the Electoral Commission are made by His Majesty on an Address from the House of Commons. The Speaker’s Committee commends to the House the reappointment of Dame Elan Closs Stephens for a further, two-year term.”

BBC board

Dame Elan has been a non-executive director of the BBC Board since 2017, and was Interim Chair of the BBC between June 2023 and March 2024, during a period of turmoil following the forced resignation as Chair of Richard Sharp after he breached the rules on public appointments by failing to declare his connection to a secret £800,000 loan made to Boris Johnson.

Dame Elan chairs the UNESCO International Prize for the Creative Economy panel.

Born at Talysarn in the Nantlle Valley, Gwynedd, she attended Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle Secondary school before studying English at Somerville College, Oxford.

In 1998 she was appointed Chair of the S4C Authority, serving two terms until 2006. She was a Governor of the British Film Institute until 2007, chairing its Audit and Governance committee during the refurbishment of the Southbank Centre National Film Theatre. Chair of the Wales Advisory Committee to the British Council until 2011, she was a board member of the Film Agency for Wales and a Trustee of the organisation Arts & Business..

Between 2001 and 2006, she chaired Chwarae Teg, a body promoting economic development for women in Wales. In 2006 she delivered the Stephens Report on the financing and structure of the Arts in Wales to the Welsh Government. Three years later she was appointed Chair of the Recovery Board for Isle of Anglesey County Council, which had previously been mired in scandal.

Between 2009 and 2018, Dame Elan was a non-executive director of the Welsh Government’s Strategic Delivery and Performance Board, and in 2017 she was appointed Chair of the Public Leadership Forum, overseeing CEOs of the Welsh Government arm’s-length public bodies.

In 2019, she was appointed Professor Emerita of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television, and Pro-Chancellor of the university.

Her association with the BBC began in 2010, when she was appointed to the BBC Trust. In 2017, following the abolition of the Trust, she was appointed as the member for Wales on the new BBC Board.

Huw Edwards

In July 2024, when interviewed on the Radio Cymru programme Beti a’i Phobol, she thanked newsreader Huw Edwards for his “huge contribution” to the BBC and “all the skills he has demonstrated.”

After Edwards’ arrest and guilty plea to charges related to child pornography, she issued, a month later, a statement in which she expressed her “shock” at the “revelations from the court.”

She was made a Dame in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.