Wales ombudsman: I don’t believe my office is politically biased

Ms Morris told the committee: “I have to say, I don’t believe that there will be evidence of political bias in our decision-making, but the review is there for someone else to properly look at that.”

But she added “there will probably be things that we need to do better, or differently, as a result of this review, whether there’s evidence of political bias found or not”.

Ms Morris said she believed the “staffing matter” with Ms Cook had been dealt with “quite swiftly” but had “left us damaged, in terms of our reputation and people’s trust and confidence in our work” investigating allegations counsellors had breached the code of conduct.

She said the review would examine between 670 and 700 cases but that she hoped the work could be completed by the end of the summer, in time to report back to the committee this autumn.

Ms Morris said the report will be published.