Welsh Government only sought evidence of contractor’s criminal record after Nation.Cymru revealed the company boss was a sex offender

Martin Shipton

Welsh Government officials only sought evidence of criminal conviction DBS checks from a company awarded a contract that involved workers meeting vulnerable people after Nation.Cymru raised concerns that the firm’s sole director was a convicted sex offender.

In September we reported how the Welsh Government had cancelled a research contract relating to sexuality and gender with Laurel Research Consulting Ltd after we pointed out that James Mullen had been jailed after admitting three charges of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.

Mullen was imprisoned for eight months in 2013 after being caught writhing around on a classroom floor with a girl pupil aged 16 following a parent-teacher event. He had got a job as a history teacher at the £24,000-per-year Catholic boarding school straight after leaving university, and had only worked there for six months when he began to groom the pupil.

‘Passionate embrace’

Their relationship was uncovered when another teacher saw them in a “passionate embrace” in the school’s music room at 10pm. She confronted Mullen after seeing the girl leaving the room in a “dishevelled state”.

He broke down and was arrested by police later that evening.

Text messages between them proved he knew the relationship was wrong, the prosecution told St Albans Crown Court in Hertfordshire. In one, the girl asked Mullen ‘Is this law breaking? How much trouble could we get into?’, to which he replied: ‘Unfortunately, with me you are classified as vulnerable because I am your teacher.’

As well as the jail sentence, Mullen was banned from teaching for life.

By 2022 Mullen had been awarded a PhD in Ancient History. That year he set up Laurel Research Consulting. Nine months later it successfully bid for a contract awarded by the Welsh Government.

Conversion practices

The contract entailed researching and writing a report about the extent of conversion practices in Wales related to efforts “to change, modify or suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender, expression of sexual orientation and/or expression of gender”. It entailed interviewing vulnerable people.

In May 2023, when Jane Hutt was the Minister for Social Justice, Laurel was awarded the contract, despite appearing to have little or no relevant experience in the subject area.

Based on his Linked-In profile, Mullen’s only relevant experience to researching conversion therapy appears to be contributing to a Westminster All Party Parliamentary Group “reviewing safeguarding policy”.

The Professional Conduct Panel that banned him from teaching stated in its judgement: “On July 23 2013 you were convicted at St Albans Crown Court of three offences of sexual activity with a female child between 13-17 years old; whilst in a position of trust; when you did not reasonably believe that the victim was over 18. This is contrary to section 16 (1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. You committed these offences between February 14 2013 and February 26 2013.

“A Sexual Offenders Notice and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order were imposed against you each for a duration of 10 years on July 23 2013. You were sentenced on August 23 2013 to imprisonment for a period of eight months concurrently for each offence.”

Sex offenders register

That means Mr Mullen would still have been on the sex offenders register at the time the Welsh Government commissioned him to carry out the research.

Email correspondence released under the Freedom of Information Act shows that Welsh Government officials asked Laurel about DBS checks after Nation.Cymru’s approach.

On September 3 this year a Welsh Government official emailed Laurel Research, stating: “Just had a query come in from a colleague asking for me to send them evidence of your DBS checks. I can’t seem to find them in the submissions folder. Did you provide these to us? If not, could you send them over for all in your team who engaged with participants as soon as you can.”

Laurel Research responded: “We use BPSS (which sits above DBS but needs a specific reason for disclosure to externals). The team have them personally, I will ask and share, as we need their codes for accessing the certifications.”

‘Clueless’

The Welsh Government official sent another email, stating: “So just to clarify, are you saying you don’t have DBS checks just BPSS checks? Sorry I’ve never heard of BPSS before so I’m a bit clueless.”

Laurel Research responded: “Sorry for confusion, just checked HR, BPSS is not relevant here.

“Can I ask what exact evidence of check is needed? As the check in question here would be DBS Basic, but these do not have permanent certifications. We can provide a formal confirmation, we can also provide scanned certifications, but this will have a 1-2 week lead time as we need to receive these via mail.”

Another Welsh Government official insisted that electronic copies of all certificates were required as soon as possible, adding: “For you to be aware, the reason for the urgency of our request is that we have received a press query which we need to respond to.”

Further emails were exchanged, including one in which a Welsh Government official stated: “In the meantime, for our reassurance given the urgency of the press query, we would like to set up a Teams meeting so that the electronic versions could be shared with us on screen.”

Later emails were redacted so that the final outcome of the exchanges could not be discerned.

When we originally asked the Welsh Government how the contract came to be awarded to Laurel, a spokesperson told us: “Whilst all standard procurement and due diligence processes were followed during the tendering of this research contract, we will be reviewing the information supplied in light of the details raised.”

The spokesperson added: “The contract value is £31,000. The research will be published in autumn 2024 in accordance with GSR [Government Social Research] publication protocol.”

Terminated

Later the Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The contract with Laurel Research Consulting has been terminated following a review.”

Information disclosed in the FoI disclosure shows that the total spend on the contract up to the point when it was cancelled was £38,852.

The source who tipped us off about the story, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us:: “The whole procurement process behind this project was deeply flawed, failing to ask the most basic of questions about the company and those involved with it. Staggeringly, it now appears these included obtaining important DBS checks from adults who would have contact with vulnerable young people.

“No wonder the Welsh Government dragged its feet over the release of this information and appeared so panicked when the FoI request was submitted as we see from the email exchanges.

“Setting aside the overspend, the conduct of officials who selected and recommended this company raises serious doubts about similar projects and I hope the Senedd will urgently investigate them.

“Are there other official projects that have potentially exposed children or vulnerable adults to individuals who have not passed mandatory safety checks, or even someone who appears on the sex offenders register? Is it routine to award Welsh Government contracts worth tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to companies which have zero track record of delivering on similar projects and have an incredibly short history of trading?

“Will a review of the procurement process be undertaken to make sure this can’t happen again and will the Welsh Government commit to publishing the details of the review and answering all these questions?”