There are 60 members of Senedd Cymru: 40 constituency members who are sworn in on a first-past-the-post basis and 20 regional members elected using a type of proportional representation. Senedd Cymru has a primary function of concentrating on making acts of Senedd Cymru, which are to be made in accordance with the legislative competence under section 108A and Schedules 7A and 7B of GoWA 2006.
Another primary function of Senedd Cymru is to hold the Welsh Government and thereby other devolved Welsh bodies to account. Senedd Cymru may require, as detailed in section 37 of GoWA 2006, to summon Welsh Ministers, and in some contexts others, for the purposes of scrutiny.
In addition, Senedd Cymru approves the Welsh Ministers’ budget for the year. Since Senedd Cymru is an unincorporated association of members, the Senedd Commission that section 27 of GoWA 2006 provided must hold property, rights, and liabilities. The Senedd Commission contains the Presiding Officer and four other Senedd Members (see section 27(2)). As provided for in section 27(5) of GoWA 2006, the Commission must provide property, staff, and services that Senedd Cymru will require.
What is senedd cymru?
Senedd Cymru is the official name of the Welsh Parliament, also called the National Assembly for Wales. The Welsh Parliament, believed to have full parliamentary status, occupies its premises in Cardiff Bay. Senedd Cymru (the Senedd) works as a subordinate decision-making entity alongside the Welsh Government. It has legislative power on several devolved matters. The name’s switch from the National Assembly for Wales to Senedd Cymru is especially indicative of the standing provision of granting parliamentary status. Providing clarity, the mere reference to Senedd Cymru gives a voice to Wales entirely separate from the UK Parliament at Westminster, solidifying its place as a legislative entity.
Why was the Senedd created?
Senedd Cymru began life in 1999 as the National Assembly for Wales as part of the Labour UK government’s plans for devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Devolution to Wales aimed to enable decisions on essential services to be made by “people directly elected by, and answerable to, Welsh voters” and to “above all… provide a clear and distinctive voice for Wales.
The Welsh assembly was approved by referendum in 1997 (along with a referendum in Scotland) by a narrow majority of 50.3%; including the votes cast for it, turnout was 51.3%. Previous proposals for a Welsh assembly had been rejected by referendum in 1979 – 79.7% voted against the proposal.
The new assembly took on the executive function of the (central government) Welsh Office and had powers to make secondary legislation in those areas. Law made under powers of authority given in specific acts of the UK parliament. However, the assembly didn’t initially have powers to pass primary legislation, an important distinction from the Scottish parliament established at the same time.
What powers does the Senedd have?
The Senedd can make laws on lots of important areas of Welsh life. The main areas of lawmaking by the Senedd include the vast majority of health and social care, housing, education, local transport, economic development, social services, matters pertaining to language and culture, environmental matters, and local government.
It is also able to raise taxes on local taxes, taxes on property transactions (stamp duty land tax), taxes on landfills, and income tax rates in Wales vary. The Senedd has fewer lawmaking powers than the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Scottish Parliament, though, importantly, it has no powers over policing and justice in Wales – these remain the responsibility of the UK government.
Which parties are represented in the Senedd?
There are currently four parties represented in the Senedd. The largest party is Welsh Labour, with 30 seats which has been in government since 1999.
The other two largest parties are the Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru with 16 and 13 members respectively. There is 1 member of the Liberal Democrats, but because of the rules of the Senedd this does not provide enough members for the party to form a political group and access committees.
How do Senedd elections work?
The Senedd is elected through a voting system called the additional member system (AMS). Each voter has two votes; one is for the constituency member to represent the local area. The constituency vote is counted using the first-past-the-post counting method; the most votes wins, similar to UK general elections.
The second vote is for a political party based on a region. The constituencies are grouped into five large regions that elect four regional or ‘top-up’ members to make the make-up of the Senedd more proportional to overall vote share.
For this part of the election, in calculating top-up members, a special formula (the d’Hondt method) is used that considers the vote share for each party to satisfy the entitlement of each party for top-up seats by counterbalancing against the number of seats won in the constituency vote. Members are drawn from lists each party draws up before the election in the order of preference.
What happens after the elections of the Senedd?
Normally, the Senedd must convene during the seven days immediately after the day of polling (not counting weekends). However, the new Welsh Elections (Coronavirus) Act for 2021 stretched the deadline for first meetings to a period of 21 days after the elections. This was done to allow extra maneuverability and the possibility of delays in ballot counting and confirmation of results. As it turned out, the Senedd met again on 12 May 2021, which was less than 11 days after the elections. At that meeting, the Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford was re-elected First Minister.
What has actually happened at previous elections of the Senedd?
Welsh Labour has been the largest party in the Senedd since its inception and has won between 26 and 30 seats at every election since 1999. Labour has also been in government – sometimes as a coalition and sometimes on its own – for the entire 22 years of devolution.
In the 2021 elections, Labour matched its third-best result by winning 30 seats for the third time. The Conservatives also achieved their finest result in terms of both their share of the vote and number of seats, as they elected 16 members. Plaid Cymru won 13 seats, making a net gain of one seat on the last election, while the Lib Dems remained on one seat. None of the smaller parties, such as UKIP, Abolish the Assembly, and Propel and independents that had held seats in the previous parliament were re-elected.