Senedd members called for an “urgent and long overdue” overhaul of fire authorities amid concerns about a culture of bullying, misogyny, racism and nepotism.

Jenny Rathbone warned Wales’ fire and rescue authorities are ill-equipped to hold services to account, with a lack of separation between executive and scrutiny functions.

She said: “These bodies are anachronistic in the public sector in Wales because they are not accountable clearly enough to any outside body, and their membership is large and unwieldy; they all have between 24 and 28 members.”

Ms Rathbone drew a comparison with West Midlands fire authority which has 15 members for a population comparable to the whole of Wales.

Leading a debate on an equality committee report, entitled Sound the Alarm, after an inquiry on fire service governance, she noted that previous attempts at reform failed.

The inquiry was sparked by ITV Wales investigations and Fenella Morris’ scathing review of the culture of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

Ms Rathbone, who chairs the committee, said the Welsh Government faced huge resistance to reforms in the previous Senedd term to 2021.

“Self-interest played its part,” she said. “And we know that turkeys never vote for Christmas.

“However, the excruciating detail in the Fenella Morris report has silenced these opponents of reform – for now.”

Ms Rathbone raised concerns about the “defensive” testimony of senior fire and rescue leaders across Wales “which at times lacked candour”.

She said: “This reinforced our concerns about whether senior leaders fully grasp the extent of the change needed in fire services for the years ahead.”

The Conservatives’ Joel James criticised ministers’ “panicked” reaction to the Morris review.

He said the rapid removal of Huw Jakeway, the former chief fire officer, led to an “operational vacuum … and undoubtedly worsened the situation”.

Mr James warned that the appointment of Stuart Millington, who had a pending employment tribunal, as interim chief fire officer only fuelled public condemnation.

“To put it bluntly,” he said. “It went against the remit of establishing a senior management team untainted by the failings identified in the Morris report.”

Calling for an overhaul, the South Wales Central MS raised concerns about ITV reports of whistleblowers warning “nothing is happening, nothing is changing”.