United Kingdom legislation
The
Government of Wales Act 2006
(c. 32) is an
act
of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
that reformed the then-National Assembly for Wales (now the
Senedd
) and allows further powers to be granted to it more easily. The Act creates a system of government with a separate executive drawn from and accountable to the legislature. It is part of a series of laws legislating
Welsh devolution
.
Provisions
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The Act has the following provisions:
- creates an executive body?the
Welsh Assembly Government
(known since May 2011 as the Welsh Government)?that is separate from the legislative body, that is, the National Assembly for Wales. The Welsh Government is therefore altered from being a committee of the National Assembly to being a distinct body
- forbids candidates both contesting constituencies and being on a regional list
- provides a mechanism for
Orders in Council
to delegate power from Parliament to the Assembly, which will give the Assembly powers to make "
Measures
" (Welsh Laws). Schedule 5 of the Act describes the fields in which the assembly has Measure making powers.
- provides for a
referendum
for further legislature competencies, to be known as "
Acts of the Assembly
", expanding the Assembly's legislative competence
- creates a
Welsh Seal
and a Keeper of the Welsh Seal (the
First Minister
)
- creates a Welsh
Consolidated Fund
- creates the post of
Counsel General
as a member of the Welsh Government and its
chief legal adviser
.
- assigns to the
Queen
new functions of formally appointing Welsh ministers and granting
royal assent
to Acts of the Assembly.
The bill received Royal assent on 25 July 2006.
The part that provides for Acts was brought into force, and the relating to Measures and related Orders in Council ceased to have effect, on 5 May 2011 following the
2011 Welsh devolution referendum
. The Act was further amended to rename the Assembly to
Senedd Cymru
, and further extend its legislative competence to the
reserved matters
model, by the
Wales Act 2014
.
Schedule 5 of the Act
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Schedule 5 of the Act describes the 20 "Fields" and "Matters" in which the
National Assembly for Wales
had legislative competence, i.e. the ability to pass
Assembly Measures
. A Field is a broad subject area, such as education and training, the environment, health and health services, highways and transport, or housing. A Matter is a specific defined policy area within a Field.
The Assembly could gain further legislative competence by the amendment of Schedule 5. There were two ways in which this can happen: either as a result of clauses included in legislation passed by an Act of Parliament at Westminster, or by
Legislative Competence Orders
(LCOs) granted by Parliament in response to a request from the National Assembly itself (LCOs could be proposed by the Welsh Government, or by individual members, or by Assembly Committees, but had to be approved by the National Assembly before they could go forward). The result of either method was to amend any of the 20 Fields by inserting specific Matters. The Assembly then had competence to pass legislation on those Matters.
Schedule 5 was regularly updated as result of these two processes.
Schedule 5 became moot when the Assembly gained the competence to pass Acts, which were restricted to Matters listed in Schedule 7 rather than Schedule 5, and lost the competence to pass Measures.
Fields of Schedule 5
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Criticism
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The Government of Wales Act 2006 was criticised by
Plaid Cymru
for not delivering a fully-fledged parliament.
[
citation needed
]
See also
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Notes
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References
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External links
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UK Legislation
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