Government of Wales Act 2006

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Government of Wales Act 2006^[a]

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision about the government of Wales.
Citation	2006 c. 32
Dates
Royal assent	25 July 2006; 17 years ago (2006-07-25)
Other legislation
Amended by	National Assembly for Wales (Official Languages) Act 2012, Wales Act 2014, Wales Act 2017, Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020
Status: Amended
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

Constitutional documents and events relevant to the status of the United Kingdom and its countries
List per year Referendums (Scotland & Wales) Act 1997 Scottish devolution referendum 1997 Welsh devolution referendum 1997 Good Friday Agreement 1998 Northern Ireland Act 1998 Government of Wales Act 1998 Human Rights Act 1998 Scotland Act 1998 House of Lords Act 1999 Representation of the People Act 2000 2000 Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Government of Wales Act 2006 2006 Northern Ireland Act 2009 2009 Lisbon Treaty 2009 Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 Parl. Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 Welsh devolution referendum 2011 Alternative Vote referendum 2011 European Union Act 2011 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 Scotland Act 2012 2012 Succession to the Crown Act 2013 2013 Scottish independence referendum 2014 House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Wales Act 2014 2014 HL (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 Recall of MPs Act 2015 European Union Referendum Act 2015 EU membership referendum 2016 Scotland Act 2016 2016 Wales Act 2017 2017 EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 Invocation of Article 50 2017 European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 EU Withdrawal Act 2019 2019 EU Withdrawal (No. 2) Act 2019 Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 UK leaves the European Union 2020 EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020 Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
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This article is part of a series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the
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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

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
  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
  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

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

• Field 1:
  fisheries, forestry and rural development
• Field 2:
  historic buildings
• Field 3: culture
• Field 4: economic development
• Field 5: education and training
• Field 6: environment
• Field 7: fire and rescue services and promotion of fire safety
• Field 8: food
• Field 9:
  health services
• Field 10:
  highways and transport
• Field 11: housing
• Field 12: local government
• Field 13:
  National Assembly for Wales
• Field 14: public administration
• Field 15:
  social welfare
• Field 16: sport and recreation
• Field 17: tourism
• Field 18:
  town and country planning
• Field 19:
  flood defence
• Field 20: Welsh language

Criticism

The Government of Wales Act 2006 was criticised by Plaid Cymru for not delivering a fully-fledged parliament.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Welsh devolution
• Government of Wales Act 1998
• Wales Act 2014
• Wales Act 2017
• Contemporary Welsh Law

Notes