Senedd

This article is about the devolved parliament of Wales. For the building housing it, seeSenedd building.

Senedd Cymru Welsh Parliament
Sixth Senedd
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Founded	12 May 1999
Preceded by	Welsh Office(1965–1999)
Leadership
Llywydd (Presiding Officer)	Elin Jones,Plaid Cymru since 11 May 2016
Deputy Presiding Officer (Dirprwy Lywydd)	David Rees,Labour since 12 May 2021
Trefnydd(Leader)	Jane Hutt,Labour since 21 March 2024
First Minister	Vaughan Gething,Labour since 20 March 2024
Leader of the Opposition	Andrew RT Davies,Conservative since 24 January 2021
Chief Executive and Clerk	Manon Antoniazzi since April 2017
Structure
Seats	60
Political groups	Government(30) Labour(30) Opposition (30) Conservative(16) Plaid Cymru(12) Liberal Democrats(1) Independent(1)
Elections
Voting system	Additional-member system(until 2026) Party-list proportional representation(closed list) (from 2026)
Last election	6 May 2021
Next election	On or before 7 May 2026
Meeting place
Siambr (debating chamber) in theSenedd building,Cardiff,Wales
Website
senedd.wales

TheSenedd(/ˈsɛnɛð/SEN-edh;lit. 'parliament'or'senate'), officially known as theWelsh ParliamentinEnglishandSenedd Cymru([ˈsɛnɛðˈkəmrɨ]) inWelsh,is thedevolved,unicamerallegislatureofWales.A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees to certain taxes, and scrutinises theWelsh Government.It is a bilingual institution, with both Welsh and English being the official languages of its business.From its creation in May 1999 until May 2020, the Senedd was officially known as theNational Assembly for Wales(Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) and was often simply called theWelsh Assembly.

The Senedd comprises 60 members who are known asmembers of the Senedd(Aelodau o'r Senedd),abbreviated as "MS" (Welsh:AS).Since 2011, members are elected for a five-yearterm of officeunder anadditional member system,in which 40 MSs represent smaller geographical divisions known as"constituencies"and are elected byfirst-past-the-post voting,and 20 MSs representfive "electoral regions"using theD'Hondt methodofproportional representation.Typically, the largest party in the Senedd forms the Welsh Government.

A National Assembly for Wales was created by theGovernment of Wales Act 1998,following the result of the1997 referendum.The Assembly initially had no powers to makeprimary legislation.Limited law-making powers were gained through theGovernment of Wales Act 2006.Its primary law-making powers were enhanced following a Yes vote in thereferendum on 3 March 2011,meaning that theUK Parliamentor theSecretary of State for Waleswere no longer consulted when passingacts of the National Assembly for Walesrelated to the20 devolved areas.These powers were further extended by theWales Act 2014andWales Act 2017,with the latter moving the Assembly to a reserved powers model of devolution like that of the Scottish Parliament. In May 2020, the Assembly was renamed to "Senedd Cymru" or "the Welsh Parliament" when section 2 of theSenedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020came into force. The Senedd's powers in economic matters are significantly restricted by theUK Internal Market Act 2020,a primary purpose of which is to constrain the capacity of the devolved institutions to use their regulatory autonomy.Matters devolved to the Senedd include health, education, economic development, transport, the environment, agriculture, local government and some taxes.

History

Road to devolution

Main article:Welsh devolution

An appointedCouncil for Wales and Monmouthshirewas established in 1949 to "ensure the government is adequately informed of the impact of government activities on the general life of the people of Wales". The council had 27 members nominated by local authorities in Wales, theUniversity of Wales,National Eisteddfod Counciland theWelsh Tourist Board.A post of Minister of Welsh Affairs was created in 1951 and the post ofSecretary of State for Walesand theWelsh Officewere established in 1964 leading to the abolition of the Council for Wales. The establishment of the Welsh Office effectively created the basis for the territorial governance of Wales.TheRoyal Commission on the Constitution(the Kilbrandon Commission) was set up in 1969 byHarold Wilson's Labour Government to investigate the possibility of devolution for Scotland and Wales.Its recommendations formed the basis of the 1974White paperDemocracy and Devolution: proposals for Scotland and Wales,which proposed the creation of a Welsh Assembly. However, Welsh voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposals in areferendum held in 1979.

Following the1997 general election,the new Labour Government argued that an Assembly would be more democratically accountable than theWelsh Office.For eleven years prior to 1997 Wales had been represented in theCabinet of the United Kingdomby aSecretary of Statewho did not represent a Welsh constituency atWestminster.Areferendum was heldin Wales on 18 September 1997 in which voters approved the creation of the National Assembly for Wales with a total of 559,419 votes, or 50.3% of the vote.

The following year theGovernment of Wales Actwas passed by theUnited Kingdom parliament,establishing the Assembly. On 1 July 1999 the powers of the Secretary of State for Wales were transferred to the Assembly and the Welsh Office ceased to exist.

In July 2002, theWelsh Governmentestablished anindependent commission,withLord Richard(former leader of theHouse of Lords) as chair, to review the powers and electoral arrangements of the National Assembly to ensure that it is able to operate in the best interests of the people of Wales.The Richard Commission reported in March 2004. It recommended that the National Assembly should have powers to legislate in certain areas, whilst others would remain the preserve of Westminster.It also recommended changing the electoral system to thesingle transferable vote(STV) which would produce greaterproportionality.

In response, the British government, in itsBetter Governance for WalesWhite Paper, published on 15 June 2005, proposed a more permissive law-making system for the Welsh Assembly based on the use of Parliamentary Orders in Council.In so doing, the Government rejected many of the cross party Richard Commission's recommendations. This has attracted criticism from opposition parties and others.

Enhanced powers: The Government of Wales Act 2006

Main article:Government of Wales Act 2006

TheGovernment of Wales Act 2006receivedRoyal assenton 25 July 2006. It conferred on the Assembly legislative powers similar to otherdevolvedlegislatures through the ability to passAssembly Measuresconcerning matters that are devolved. Requests for further legislative powers made throughlegislative competencerequests were subject to the veto of theSecretary of State for Wales,House of CommonsorHouse of Lords.

The Act reformed the assembly to a parliamentary-type structure, establishing theWelsh Governmentas an entity separate from, but accountable to the National Assembly. It enables the Assembly to legislate within its devolved fields.

The Act also reforms the Assembly's electoral system. It prevents individuals from standing as candidates in both constituency and regional seats. This aspect of the act was subject to a great deal of criticism,most notably from theElectoral Commission.,although it was supported in the Richard Commission

The Act was heavily criticised.Plaid Cymru,the Official Opposition in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2007, attacked itfor not delivering a fully-fledged parliament. Many commentatorshave also criticised the Labour Party's allegedly partisan attempt to alter the electoral system. By preventing regional Members from standing in constituency seats the party has been accusedof changing the rules to protect constituency representatives. Labour had 29 members in the Assembly at the time, all of whom held constituency seats.

The changes to the Assembly's powers were commenced on 4 May 2007, after theelection.

Following areferendum on 3 March 2011,the Welsh Assembly gained direct law making powers, without the need to consult Westminster.

Reserved powers model: The Wales Act 2017

TheConservative-Liberal coalition governmentcreated theCommission on Devolution in Wales(also known as Silk Commission), composed of members nominated by the 4 parties represented in the Welsh Assembly and several leading legal and political experts, to "create a lasting devolution settlement for Wales". Following the first set of recommendations by the Commission, the UK government announced in November 2013 that some borrowing powers are to be devolved to the Assembly along with control of landfill tax and stamp duty. Additionally theWales Act 2014provides for a referendum to be held on the Assembly's ability to set a degree ofincome tax,though there is a proposal for the requirement for a referendum to be removed.

Both the UK and Welsh governments supported the Silk Commission (Part 2) proposal to move to a "reserved powers"model of devolution (similar to that of theScottish Parliamentand theNorthern Ireland Assembly) where the UK government would have specific "reserved" powers and the Welsh Assembly would have control of all other matters.This replaced the previous model where certain powers were "conferred" and all others were assumed to be powers of the UK national government. Since the passing of theWales Act 2017,the power model in Wales has been in line with that of Scotland, being a reserved matter model.

TheWales Act 2017,based on the second set of recommendations of the Silk Commission, proposed devolving further areas of government, including some relating to water, marine affairs (ports, harbours, conservation), energy (subsidies, petroleum extraction, construction of smaller energy-generating facilities, etc.), rail franchising and road travel.

Name change

In July 2016, Assembly members unanimously agreed that the name of the Assembly should reflect its constitutional status as a national parliament.TheAssembly Commissionran a public consultation on the proposal, which showed that 61% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the Assembly should change its name.In 2018, the commission announced its intention to introduce legislation to change the name of the Assembly. Later that year, theLlywydd– the Assembly's presiding officer – wrote to all Assembly Members explaining that the name change proposed in the Bill would be the monolingual name "Senedd".In 2019, theSenedd and Elections (Wales) Bill,favouring the name "Senedd", was introduced on behalf of the Assembly Commission. Following support of a subsequent amendment to the Bill which favoured a bilingual name for the institution, the Bill was passed by the Assembly on 27 November 2019 and was given Royal Assent on 15 January 2020.The Act changed the name of the Assembly to "Senedd Cymru" or the "Welsh Parliament". Its guidance states that the institution will be commonly known as theSeneddin both languages. The name change came into effect on 6 May 2020. Members of the renamed body are known as Members of the Senedd (MS), or Aelodau o'r Senedd (AS) in Welsh.

Constraints on powers: UK Internal Market Act 2020

As part of the process of leaving the European Union, the Conservative Party in power in Westminster passed theUnited Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020.This legislation aims to prevent internal trade barriers within the UK, and to restrict the exercise of legislative powers of the devolved administrations in economic areas.It has several effects on the constitutional arrangements regarding devolved legislative powers. Principal amongst these is the effect that the market access principles will have on the practical ability of the devolved administrations to regulate economic activity.It also expressly reserves the regulation of distortive or harmful subsidies to the UK Government, and gives them spending powers in numerous policymaking areas.

These powers undermine the authority of the Senedd to determine infrastructure priorities within its jurisdiction. The principles undermine devolved competences in two ways. These relate to its status as a protected enactment, and to the disproportionate market size and power of the economy under English jurisdiction.Because the Senedd will be unable to disapply the market access principles, if they attempt to introduce new or stricter regulatory standards, they will only apply to goods produced within the devolved jurisdiction. This means that these standards will have little or no practical effect other than to disadvantage their own economy, severely restricting their ability to introduce regulatory divergence, or pursue different economic or social choices to those made in Westminster.

Proposed expansion

Main article:Senedd Reform Bill

On 22 November 2021,Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru agreed a co-operation dealthat will see the implementation of 46 policies that the two parties share.One of these is the expansion of the Senedd from 60 Members to between 80 and 100 Members.

At its Conference on 12 March 2022, Welsh Labour unanimously approved increasing the size of the Senedd. "The expansion of the Senedd is essential because the journey of devolution is not yet complete," former First MinisterAlun Michaelsaid. "There is more to come. And the capacity needs to be there for those backbenchers to do the job of holding to account that you rightly said, cannot be done by to smaller number of representatives."Two weeks later, Plaid members backed the expansion proposal as well.

On 10 May 2022, plans to increase the number of MSs from 60 to 96 were unveiled, as well as the scrapping offirst past the post,which is currently used to elect 40 of the 60 Members of the Senedd (MSs). Drakeford said these changes were required as "report after report" had demonstrated that the Senedd in its current form "cannot do the job in the way that people in Wales have a right to expect it to be done".Welsh Lib Dem leaderJane Doddscriticised these plans, claiming that they would disproportionately impact smaller parties.

On 8 June 2022, the Senedd voted 40-14 in favour of expanding the number of MSs.

In 2023, the reform bill committee heard reforms included taking 32 new constituencies created that will be used in the2024 general electionand pairing them to create 16 Senedd constituencies – with each returning six members inmulti-member districts.Opposition to the proposedclosed listvoting system was expressed by some Labourand Plaid Cymrurepresentatives, while opposition to the overall expansion of the Senedd was expressed by some Labour representativesand the Conservatives.

Buildings

TheSenedd building

Senedd building

Main article:Senedd building

Thedebating chamberinCardiff Bay,theSenedd(Senate), was designed by theRichard Rogers Partnership,and built byTaylor Woodrow,with environmental, mechanical, electrical and plumbing design by BDSP Partnership. It uses traditional Welsh materials, such as slate andWelsh oak,in its construction, and the design is based around the concepts of openness and transparency. The timber ceiling and centre funnel, manufactured and installed by BCL Timber Projects (sub-contracted by Taylor Woodrow) is made from Canadian sourced Western Red Cedar.

The Senedd building

Logo of the Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament on the outside of the building

In the reception area, maps of the boundaries of the five electoral regions that elect 20 seats(left),and the constituencies that elect 40 seats(right)

The Senedd houses the debating chamber known as the Siambr (Welsh:Y Siambr)and Committee Rooms. It was officially opened by QueenElizabeth IIonSt David's Day,1 March 2006.

The Senedd is designed to be environmentally friendly: it uses an Earth Heat Exchange system for heating; rainwater is collected from the roof and used for flushing toilets and cleaning windows, and the roof features a wind cowl which funnels natural light and air into the debating chamber below.

Telecasting

Screenshot of the front page ofsenedd.tvin 2022

The building houses the debating chamber and committee rooms for the Senedd. When the Senedd building opened on 1 March 2006, there was regular screening of live proceedings from the Siambr onS4C2and also oninternet television.Coverage of the S4C2 screenings were on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9:00 am 6:00 pm when the Senedd was sitting.In addition, limited screens were shown on theBBC Two Walesprogramme"am.pm",includingFirst Minister's Questions.These were decommissioned after S4C2 switched its scheduling to children programs and because of budget cuts.Internet television screenings are now shown on the Senedd's own website called Senedd.tv, which screens approximately 35 hours of content each week inEnglishandWelsh.The service began 15 April 2008.Key events such as First Minister's Questions are shown live and recorded onBBC Parliamenton television and oniPlayer.Also on BBC Parliament some proceedings are shown as highlights of the week on the program The Week in Parliament.

In October 2023,GB Newswas banned from the Senedd's internal TV system, with a spokesperson for the presiding officer claiming the channel was "deliberately offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our parliament's values".

Tŷ Hywel and Pierhead Building

Tŷ Hywel

The Pierhead Building

Main articles:Tŷ HywelandPierhead Building

The debating chamber was initially based inTŷ Hywel,next to the site of the present building. The offices of Members are still in this building which is connected to the Senedd by askyway.TheSenedd Commissionis also responsible for thePierhead Building,which is the location of "The Assembly at the Pierhead" exhibition, and is the Visitor and Education Centre for the Senedd as well as housing a small gift shop. The exhibition, currently still in the process of being updated following the2016 National Assembly for Wales election,provides visitors with information on who's who, what's happening and how the Senedd works.

North Wales Office

North Wales Office

The North Wales Information Centre is located in Prince's Park on Prince's Drive,Colwyn Bay.The office is open to the public to access information about the Senedd. The office is open on weekdays between 10:00 and 16:00.

Officials

Elected officials

Main article:Llywydd of the Senedd

The Senedd'sceremonial macesits in front of the Presiding Officer's desk in the Senedd chamber.

After each election, the Senedd elects one Member of the Senedd to serve asLlywydd(Presiding Officer) of the Senedd, and another to serve as Deputy Presiding Officer (Dirprwy Llywydd).Elin Jones,Plaid CymruMS, has been Llywydd since 2016, having taken over fromRosemary Butler.The Llywydd also acts as Chair of theSenedd Commission.Both the Llywydd and the Deputy Presiding Officer (Dirprwy Lywydd) typically don't vote in simple-majority votes.

Permanent officials

The permanent administrative and support staff of the Senedd are employed by the Senedd Commission. They are not civil servants, although they enjoy similar terms and conditions of service to members of theUK Civil Service.

Powers and status

See also:2011 Welsh devolution referendum;Devolved, reserved and excepted matters;andAct of Senedd Cymru

TheRoyal Badge of Walesappears onActs of Senedd Cymru

The Senedd consists of 60 elected members. They use the titleMember of the Senedd(MS) orAelod o'r Senedd(AS).The executive arm of the Senedd, theWelsh Government,has been aLabouradministration since its inception in 1999. Currently it is led by First Minister,Vaughan Gething,since March 2024.The government between 2007 and 2011, had been a coalition betweenLabour,led by First Minister Carwyn Jones andPlaid Cymru,led by Deputy First MinisterIeuan Wyn Jones;and between 2016 and 2021, Labour had been in coalition with theLiberal Democratsand an independent member.Since 2021, the government has been a Labour minority government. The executive and civil servants are mainly based in Cardiff'sCathays Parkwhile the MSs, the Senedd Commission and Ministerial support staff are based inCardiff Bay,where a new £67 million building, theSenedd,has been built.

One important feature of the National Assembly until 2007 was that there was no legal or constitutional separation of the legislative and executive functions, since it was a single corporate entity. Compared with otherparliamentary systems,and arrangements for devolution in other countries of the UK, this was unusual. In practice, however, there was separation of functions, and the terms "Assembly" and "Assembly Parliamentary Service" came into use to distinguish between the two arms. The Government of Wales Act 2006 regularised the separation when it came into effect following the 2007 Assembly Election.

Initially, the Assembly did not have primary legislative or fiscal powers, as these powers were reserved byWestminster.The Assembly did have powers to passsecondary legislationin devolved areas. Sometimes secondary legislation could be used to amendprimary legislation,but the scope of this was very limited. For example, the first Government of Wales Act gave the Assembly power to amend primary legislation relating to the merger of certain public bodies. However, most secondary powers were conferred on the executive by primary legislation to give the executive (i.e. Ministers) more powers, and the Assembly had wider legislative powers than appearances might suggest. For example, the Assembly delayed local elections due to be held in 2003 for a year by use of secondary powers, so that they would not clash with Assembly elections. In 2001 the UK parliament used primary legislation to delay for one month local elections in England during theFoot-and-mouth diseaseepidemic.

The Assembly gained limited primary legislative powers following the 2007 election and the passage of theGovernment of Wales Act 2006.These laws are known asAssembly Measuresand can be enacted in specific fields and matters within the legislative competency of the Assembly. New matters and fields can be devolved by Acts of the UK Parliament or byLCOsapproved by Parliament.

Until 2015 the Assembly had no tax-varying powers, however it could influence the rate ofCouncil Taxset bylocal authorities,which are part-funded by a grant from the Welsh government.It also has some discretion over charges for government services. Notable examples in which this discretion has been used to create significant differences from other areas in the UK are:

1. Charges for NHS prescriptions in Wales– these have now been abolished.
2. Charges for University Tuition– are different for Welsh resident students studying at Welsh Universities, compared with students from or studying elsewhere in the UK.
3. Charging for Residential Care– In Wales there is a flat rate of contribution towards the cost of nursing care (roughly comparable to the highest level of English Contribution) for those who require residential care.

This means in reality that there is a wider definition of "nursing care" than in England and therefore less dependence on means testing in Wales than in England, so that more people are entitled to higher levels of state assistance. These variations in the levels of charges may be viewed asde factotax varying powers.

This model of more limited legislative powers created in 1999 was partly because Wales has had the same legal system as England since 1536 (though a different court system until 1830), when it wasmergedwith England.IrelandandScotlandwere never merged with England, and so always retained some differences in their legal systems. TheScottish Parliamentand theNorthern Ireland Assemblyboth have deeper and wider powers.

The Assembly inherited the powers and budget of theSecretary of State for Walesand most of the functions of theWelsh Office.It has power to vary laws passed byWestminsterusing secondary legislation.

Following a referendum on 4 March 2011, the Welsh Assembly gained direct law-making powers (without the need to consult Westminster). On 3 July 2012, the Welsh Assembly passed its first Act, the Local Government Byelaws (Wales) Act.

The Wales Act 2014 and Wales Act 2017 devolved the following taxes to the Welsh Assembly:

• Non-Domestic Rates in Wales– from 1 April 2015
• Land Transaction Tax(LTT) – from 1 April 2018
• Landfill Disposals Tax(LDT) – from 1 April 2018
• Welsh Rates of Income Tax(WRIT) – from 1 April 2019

Powers of the Senedd

Main article:Devolved, reserved and excepted matters

The Senedd has the competence to pass bills forActs of Senedd Cymruin all areas which are not explicitly reserved to Westminster; these 'reserved matters' are outlined in schedule 7A of theGovernment of Wales Act 2006.

This means the Senedd has powers over areas such as:

• Agriculture,fisheries,forestryandrural development
• Culture
• Economic development
• Education and training
• Environment
• Health and health services
• Highways and transport
• Local government
• Tourism
• Welsh language

Reserved matters include subjects such as:

• Foreign affairs
• Police and justice
• Currency
• Most benefits
• Most taxes
• Defence

Members, constituencies, and electoral system

Members of the Senedd during aplenary sessionin the Siambr

See also:List of members of the SeneddandList of Senedd constituencies

Under theAdditional Member System,forty of the MSs are elected from single-member constituencies on aplurality voting system(orfirst past the post) basis, the constituencies being equivalent to those used for theHouse of Commonsand twenty MSs are elected from regionalclosed listsusing an alternative party vote.There are five regions:Mid and West Wales,North Wales,South Wales Central,South Wales EastandSouth Wales West(these are the same as the pre 1999 European Parliament constituencies for Wales), each of which returns four members.The additional members produce a degree of proportionality within each region.Whereas voters can choose any regional party list irrespective of their party vote in the constituency election, list MSs are not elected independently of the constituency element; rather, elected constituency MSs are deemed to be pre-elected list representatives for the purposes of calculating remainders in theD'Hondt method.Overall proportionality is limited by the low proportion of list members (33% of the Senedd compared with 43% in theScottish Parliamentand 50% in the GermanBundestag), the regionalisation of the list element, and the lack ofoverhang seatcompensation andleveling seats.Consequently, the Senedd as a whole has a greater degree of proportionality (based on proportions in the list elections) than the plurality voting system used for British parliamentary elections, but still deviates somewhat from proportionality.Thesingle transferable votesystem had been considered for the Senedd by theLabour Partyas early as 1995–96, but according to the evidence given to the Richard Commission byRon Davies,a formerWelsh Secretary,

Had we done that of course we would have had to have had a Boundary Commission and that process would have taken forever and a day and that would have frustrated our overall political timetable. So we had to settle on the existing constituency arrangements, parliamentary constituencies and European Constituencies.

In April 2020 the Senedd became the first legislature in the UK to meet over the internet. Due to the consequences of theCOVID-19 pandemic,it held First Minister's Questions usingZoomvideotelephonysoftware and the session was subsequently broadcast by Senedd.tv.

Elections

See also:List of Senedd electionsandElections in Wales § Devolved parliament elections

Percentage of seats won in each election by political group, 1999 to 2021. Left to right: Labour Lib Dem Plaid Cymru John Marek People's Voice UKIP Conservative

There have been sixelections to the Senedd,in1999,2003,2007,2011,2016and2021.The 2016 election was delayed from 2015 as theUK general election was held in 2015,and following the passing of the Wales Act 2014, elections occur every five years from the 2016 election.

Thenext Senedd electionis due to be held on Thursday 7 May 2026.

Summary

Assembly/ Senedd	Year	Turnout	Seats						Governments
			Labour	Plaid Cymru	Conser­vative	Lib Dems	UKIP	Others
	1997	50%	Devolution referendum
1st	1999	46%	28	17	9	6	–	–	Michael(Labour minority) Interim Morgan(Labour minority) Morgan I(Labour – LD)
2nd	2003	38%	30	12	11	6	0	1(JMIP)	Morgan II(Labour majority until 2005), minority after 2005
3rd	2007	44%	26	15	12	6	0	1(BGPVG)	Morgan III(Labour minority) Morgan IV(Labour – Plaid) Jones I(Labour – Plaid)
	2011	36%	Devolution referendum
4th	2011	42%	30	11	14	5	0	–	Jones II(Labour minority)
5th	2016	45%	29	12	11	1	7	–	Jones III(Labour–LD minority, Lib Dem coalition) Drakeford I(Labour–LD–IND majority)
6th	2021	47%	30	13	16	1	0	–	Drakeford II(Labour minority) Gething(Labour minority)

Notes

Overall

2021 Senedd election

Parties		Additional member system										Total seats
		Constituency					Region
		Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Total	+/−	%
	Labour	443,047	39.9	5.2	27		401,770	36.2	4.7	3	1	30	1	50
	Conservative	289,802	26.1	5.0	8	2	278,650	25.1	6.3	8	3	16	5	26.7
	Plaid Cymru	225,376	20.3	0.2	5	1	230,161	20.7	0.1	8	2	13	1	21.7
	Liberal Democrats	54,202	4.9	2.8	0	1	48,217	4.3	2.2	1	1	1		1.7
	Green	17,817	1.6	0.9	0		48,714	4.4	1.4	0		0		0.0
	Abolish	18,149	1.6	1.6	0		41,399	3.7	0.7	0		0		0.0
	UKIP	8,586	0.8	11.7	0		17,341	1.6	11.4	0	7	0	7	0.0

Turnout

Voter turnout at Senedd elections has been traditionally lower than UK general elections. No election since devolution began has hit 50% turnout, with the 2021 election being the highest at 46.6%.In their 2004 paperTurnout, Participation and Legitimacy in Post-Devolution Wales,academicsRoger Awan-Scully,Richard Wyn JonesandDafydd Trystan Daviesidentified three potential reasons for this: antipathy to the Welsh institutions, apathy to the Welsh institutions or apathy to politics more generally. They suggested apathy – in Wales and to politics in general – is the most likely reason.

Following the 2021 election, Dr Jac Larner, a politics lecturer atCardiff Universityand an investigator for the Welsh election survey, said the lower turnout figures in Wales did not necessarily reflect a lack of perceived importance in the Senedd.He toldBBC News:"We know from research that low voter turnout is actually a lot do to with people thinking they can't win in a devolved election, so they don't bother going to vote. That's different to a general election where, in Wales, Labour are still more likely to win a majority of seats, but at the UK level it's far more competitive."He compared turnout in Wales to turnout forScottish Parliamentelections, which is significantly higher: "Scotland is in quite a unique political position at the moment, where the single most salient issue and the biggest cleavage in society – the issue ofindependence– basically is going to be determined by what happens at the Holyrood elections. Part of it is this idea of interest – there has always been more interest in the idea of a Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Parliament has always been more powerful than the Senedd, even going back to 1999. "

Current composition

Main article:Gething government

Government formation

Welsh Labour won 30 seats out of 60 in the 2021 Senedd elections. On 9 May 2021 the First Minister,Mark DrakefordMS said "We have demonstrated over a number of governments that you can govern successfully on 30 seats, but I'm open to working with any party where there is common ground between us."

On 22 November 2021, a deal between Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru was announced. The agreement was not one which saw Plaid Cymru entering a coalition in government with Labour, with Plaid Cymru MSs remaining in opposition. However, Plaid Cymru were able to appoint special advisors to the Welsh Government in a deal which was designed to last for three years.On 17 May 2024, Plaid Cymru announced it would uniliaterally exit the agreement due to concerns with the Labour government's ethics.

See also

• Welsh Law
• Act of Senedd Cymru
• List of by-elections to the Senedd
• Regional member changes to the Senedd
• Member of the Senedd
• Scottish Parliament
• Northern Ireland Assembly
• Senedd constituencies and electoral regions
• Wales-only laws
• List of Senedd elections
• List of devolved matters in Wales

External links

• Official website
• The Queen opens the First Welsh Assembly 1999
• Senedd.tv website