Martin Shipton
The public relations group that helped the Welsh Government promote its controversial 20mph speed limit policy has insisted that its appointment was conducted entirely in line with procurement regulations.
A source who contacted Nation.Cymru raised a series of concerns about the appointment of the Cardiff-based Lynn Group, stating: “The firm markets its expertise in science-based behaviour change. Its founder, Shayoni Lynn, previously worked in communications at Cardiff University and describes herself as self-taught in behavioural science.
“For a national policy affecting millions of people, what evidence convinced the Welsh Government that she – or her team – had the scientific expertise and experience of delivering comparable campaigns to justify the appointment? How did those credentials compare with competing bidders?
“An August 2023 Senedd answer disclosed £738,594 paid to Lynn Group across its work. Six subsequent payments in the government’s 2023 and 2024 records total £410,460. The complete bill to date and the breakdown between fees and advertising need confirming.
“I would encourage you to examine the procurement assessment and campaign evaluation, focusing on four questions:
- Who assessed the scientific quality of Lynn’s proposed methods, and how were they assessed?
- Which specialists were promised in the bid, and what did they actually deliver?
- What measurable results were agreed upfront, who independently verified delivery, and did the campaign deliver on the stated goals?
- What evidence supports the implication that Lynn’s campaign helped reduce road casualties?
“That final question arises from Lynn’s 20mph case study, which places a 32% casualty reduction under ‘Real world impact’. I would encourage you to ask the firm directly to substantiate the causal implication: what evidence shows its communications had a causal impact on that improvement?
“Welsh taxpayers’ money is too precious for claims of scientific expertise and effectiveness to escape scrutiny. Lynn says its campaign aimed to encourage acceptance and explain where 20mph applied, yet YouGov polling conducted after it ended found 72% opposed the change and 60% were unclear which roads it covered. What evidence convinced the Welsh Government that the campaign had delivered against those objectives?
“Having supported the 20mph policy, Plaid Cymru now has responsibility in government to explain what taxpayers received for this spending and ensure the claims made about its impact withstand scrutiny.”
We sought a response from Lynn and received the following statement from a spokesperson for the group: “Lynn was appointed following a competitive procurement process under the Welsh Government’s established framework. The campaign was delivered by a multidisciplinary team with specialist behavioural science expertise and evaluated against agreed communications objectives.
“Our published case study references official Welsh Government statistics on road casualties. These figures provide context on wider policy outcomes.”
A Freedom of Information Act disclosure has revealed that Lynn was awarded the contract following a competitive process under the Welsh Government’s Integrated Campaigns and PR Framework.
Complex
A source close to the project told us: “The introduction of the default 20mph speed limit was a complex national policy change involving multiple interventions, including legislation, infrastructure, enforcement, public information, and communications. Lynn’s campaign was one component of this wider intervention.
“The campaign had defined communications objectives and measurable performance indicators, including reach, engagement, traffic to campaign information, and video and audio consumption.
“These are measures of communications performance and should be distinguished from wider measures of public attitudes, driving behaviour, and policy outcomes.”
The source said Lynn’s published case study included externally reported outcomes to provide context on changes observed following implementation of the policy, including the 32% reduction in road casualties.
“This was drawn from official Welsh Government statistics published in June 2024, which showed that reported casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads combined fell from 681 in October to December 2022 to 463 in the equivalent period in 2023,” the source said.
“Lynn has not claimed that its communications independently caused this reduction. The statistic was included in the case study as an externally reported measure of the wider policy context, not as a causal estimate of the campaign’s effect.
“Lynn was responsible for delivering and evaluating its contracted communications activities against the agreed objectives and measures during the engagement. Subsequent public attitudes and behaviours have been influenced by multiple factors beyond any single communications intervention and cannot be attributed to the campaign alone.
Behavioural Science Unit
“Lynn has an established Behavioural Science Unit, which, during the campaign, was led by its then Director of Behavioural Science. The campaign was overseen by the group’s Managing Director and delivered by a multidisciplinary team with extensive professional experience and master’s and PhD-level qualifications spanning behavioural science, behavioural and economic science, psychology, experimental psychology, social policy and planning, and policy analysis and evaluation, among other disciplines.
“The group also engaged external academic expertise specialising in road safety, social marketing, and behaviour change to support its research and inform the campaign’s development.
“Lynn’s approach was informed by established behavioural science frameworks, including COM-B, the Behaviour Change Wheel, and the Theoretical Domains Framework. The group undertook primary research to understand public awareness, knowledge gaps, and barriers to understanding the policy. Campaign materials were also tested before deployment to assess their likely effectiveness and inform their development.
“By January 2024, the campaign had generated 73.9m impressions against a target of 17.5m, achieved a 3.12% engagement rate against a target of 3%, and generated 118,449 unique link clicks against a target of 43,750.
“Lynn undertook primary research and behavioural monitoring as part of the campaign, including research conducted in the months preceding implementation of the policy.
“Its published case study references a YouGov survey conducted in September 2023, which found that 97% of respondents had heard about the forthcoming change to the default speed limit. This was a measure of awareness, rather than public approval of the policy.
Survey
“The correspondence also refers to a separate YouGov survey conducted in July 2024 and published in August, which reported opposition to the policy and uncertainty about which roads it applied to.
“That research was conducted after Lynn’s contract had concluded in May 2024. Lynn did not commission, design, or conduct that survey, and had no involvement in its methodology.
“It is important to distinguish between awareness, understanding, acceptance, and behavioural compliance. These are different outcomes, and the findings of one survey should not be treated as interchangeable with another.
“Lynn’s communications were designed to contribute to awareness, understanding, and behavioural readiness. However, it would not be scientifically appropriate to attribute changes in public attitudes, driving behaviour, or road casualties to the communications campaign alone. Isolating the independent effect of communications would require a separate causal evaluation capable of accounting for other interventions and influences.”
The Welsh Government said: “The latest road collision stats continue to be positive. The number of collisions on 20 and 30mph roads (combined) for the first quarter of 2026 are 28% lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (the year before the default speed limit was introduced) and 11% lower than in the same quarter in 2025.
“We know that it’ll take a number of years to see the full impact of the introduction of the 20mph speed limit, and we continue to build on the consensus that where 20mph is the appropriate limit it works well.”
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