What the Assembly does

The National Assembly for Wales (‘Welsh Assembly’ or ‘Assembly’) is responsible for making the laws of Wales in devolved areas and for checking the work of the Welsh Government.

The Assembly is made up of 60 Assembly Members who are elected to represent constituencies and regions of Wales. All people in Wales have Assembly Members who represent the people in the area they live in.

What the Welsh Government does

The Welsh Government is in charge of managing the devolved policy areas in Wales. It is usually made up of Assembly Members (AMs) from the party group with the most AMs in the Assembly. If there is a coalition then the AMs are from more than one party group. The leader of the government or coalition is called the First Minister.

The First Minister chooses up to 13 other colleagues to be Ministers and Deputy Ministers, who are responsible for specific policy areas and Welsh Government departments. There are different government departments working on different areas. For example, there is a Department for Health and Social Services and a separate one for Education and Skills.

The devolved areas

The Welsh Assembly and Welsh Government deal with the following areas:

• Agriculture, forestry, animals, plants and rural development
• Ancient monuments, historic buildings, culture and tourism
• Economic development
• Education and training
• Environment, food, water and flood defences
• Fire and rescue services and fire safety
• Health and health services
• Highways and transport within Wales
• Housing
• Local government
• National Assembly for Wales and public administration
• Social Welfare [NB this is social services, protection and wellbeing, and care of people rather than welfare benefits]
• Sport and recreation
• Town and country planning
• Welsh language.

Devolution

There are more details in the Government of Wales Act 2006, Schedule 7 (link to external website), about the Welsh Assembly’s specific powers:

• Some areas are almost totally devolved, such as health and education.
• In some areas responsibilities are shared between the Welsh Government and UK Government, such as transport where links within Wales are dealt with by the Welsh Government and cross-border links are generally dealt with by the UK Government
• Some areas are not devolved, such as defence.

Roles of the Assembly

Checking the work of the Welsh Government

The Welsh Assembly is responsible for checking the work of the Welsh Government. This means it looks at the money the Welsh Government spends and whether the Welsh Government’s policies are working.

Assembly Members scrutinise the work of the Welsh Government in a number of ways, including:

• Asking spoken or written questions to Welsh Government Ministers
• Holding committee enquiries to examine a policy area in detail
• Research into publicly available statistics about Wales.

Legislation

Each year the First Minister gives the Welsh Assembly a ‘legislative statement’ that sets out what laws the Welsh Government would like to introduce. New legislation is introduced as a Bill, which is debated and voted on by the Assembly.

As well as the Welsh Government’s programme of legislation, Assembly Members who are not part of the government have a chance to introduce their own proposals for new legislation after a ballot. Assembly Member Bills do not usually pass successfully through the Assembly but some have passed into law and others have been adopted by the Welsh Government.

Once a Bill has been passed through the Assembly it is presented to the UK Government to ask if the UK Government has any objections to the Bill. The UK Government cannot object if it just disagrees with what the Welsh Assembly has said. It must say, for example, that it believes the Assembly has passed a law in an area that is not devolved. The Bill is then signed by the Queen, which is called Royal Assent, and then it becomes an Act of the Assembly and is law.

Bills usually go through the same stages in the Assembly to be passed:

Stage One: the committee that is responsible for the area that the Bill deals with accepts the draft Bill from the Welsh Government and examines the general principles. It then makes a report of its findings that the Welsh Assembly votes to accept or reject the general principles of the Bill.

Stage Two: the committee looks at the Bill again but in greater detail this time. Assembly Members can introduce amendments to the Bill, to change what the Bill says. The committee votes on these amendments individually. At the end of the process it produces an amended version of the Bill with all the changes made at Stage Two.

Stage Three: this is just like Stage Two but this time the whole Assembly votes on amendments to the Bill. At the end of this stage a new version of the Bill exists with all the changes made at Stage Three.

Stage Four: the Assembly votes to accept or reject the final text of the Bill.

Structures of the Assembly

Party groups

Assembly Members usually belong to a party group. The four main party groups are Welsh Labour, Welsh Conservatives, Welsh Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru. Some Assembly Members have not belonged to a party group and are called ‘Independents’.

Committees

Assembly Members belong to committees that check the work of the Welsh Government, examine laws that are being proposed and hold inquiries into issues. Committees are responsible for specific areas, such as health and social services, the economy or spending by the government and other public bodies.

Plenary

During Assembly term times the whole Assembly meets on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons to hold debates and vote. At a typical Plenary session there might be a Welsh Government Minister answering questions from Assembly Members about their work, a debate about a committee report and there is usually voting time at the end of the session when Assembly Members vote to do or say things.

The Plenary meeting is chaired by the Presiding Officer, who makes sure that the meeting follows an agreed timetable and that Assembly Members get a chance to speak.

Assembly Commission

The Commission is responsible for the Assembly itself: for example, the plenary and committees, the Assembly buildings and the accessibility of the Assembly building and website.

Influencing the Assembly and Welsh Government

Influencing your AM

You can find out which Assembly Members represent you by visiting:

• The Assembly’s Member search
• Write to Them website
• The Assembly information team: 0845 010 5500 or assembly.info@wales.gov.uk

Letters can be addressed to your AM at the Assembly’s address:

National Assembly for Wales
Cardiff Bay
CF99 1NA

Keep your letter or email short. Be clear about what you are asking your AM to do. For example, you might ask your AM to ask a government minister a question or to support a campaign you are doing.

Always ask your AM for a reply. If you do not receive one within a reasonable period of time contact the AM’s office through the Assembly’s information team: 0845 010 5500 or assembly.info@wales.gov.uk.

For more advice about writing effective campaign letters, see our page on how to write an effective campaign letter. 

You can also arrange to meet your AM either at the Assembly in Cardiff Bay or at the AM’s local office. You can write to them or phone them to request a meeting. You are not advised to go to the Assembly or the AM’s local office without arranging to meet them first because they may not be there or may be too busy to hold meetings because of duties they have already arranged.

Your AM holds drop-in sessions in your local area – known as surgeries - to meet your AM and discuss any relevant issues. However, you may have to wait a long time depending on how many other people go to the surgery at the same time and you may only get a short meeting. AMs’ surgeries are usually advertised on their own website, local newspapers and in public facilities like leisure or community centres.

Plan what you want to say before your meeting. Be clear about what your key points are and about what you want your AM to do. If you need communication support during your meeting your AM should provide this but they will need to know what support you need with enough time to arrange it. Your AM should not refuse to provide support but if they do contact Sense for advice.

See the page about making the most of meetings for further information. 

If you would like to contact an AM about their work as a Welsh Government Minister visit the Welsh Government website.

Petitions

A petition is a way of asking the Assembly to consider an issue that the Assembly has the power to affect. The petition must be admissible, meaning it meets the Assembly’s requirements for a petition. If this happens the Petitions Committee will consider it and decide what action should be taken. Petitions can be signed by anyone. This includes people outside Wales, however, they must state their area of residence when signing.

Mass lobbies

These are usually organised by campaign groups to show the level of support for a particular issue. Taking part in a lobby of the Assembly organised by an organisation, such as Sense, is an effective way to influence your AMs and the organisers will usually provide information to help you. Organising a lobby is complex, so if you are thinking of trying to organise one it would be best to seek advice.

Committees

The Assembly’s committees check the work of the Welsh Government. Committees concentrate on policy areas and examine proposals and the impact of policies and legislation on specific topics. For example, there is a Health and Social Services Committee that is responsible for looking at issues related to social support for disabled people.

When a committee is running an inquiry into an issue it will invite people to submit written evidence. This invitation for written evidence is usually an open one, which means that anyone can respond. If you want to submit written evidence, keep your contribution clear and concise and follow any specific instructions in the invitation. You can contact Sense for further advice. Committees also invite experts or specialists to present evidence and answer questions face-to-face.

Questions

When the Assembly is in session Welsh Government ministers hold a question and answer session in the Assembly at least once every four weeks. The First Minister answers questions every week on Tuesday afternoon. Ministers also have to respond to written questions from Assembly Members.

One effective and simple thing for you to ask your AM to do is to ask a minister a question. There are some rules about how questions should be worded. This means your AM might not be able to use exactly the question you want but a similar question will usually work.

Statements of Opinion

Statements of Opinion are statements that AMs can table in the Assembly (meaning the statement is formally published). Other AMs can sign a Statement of Opinion to show that they support it.

Debates

The opposition party groups have regular time slots in the Assembly’s time to hold debates about any policy area or issue. Individual Members also have a chance to hold debates from time to time.

During the debate a motion is discussed, which is a short text that sets out what the individual AM or party group would like the Assembly to support. Other party groups can also suggest amendments to the motion, which are changes they would like to make to the motion. At the end of the Assembly session the motions and amendments are voted on.

These debates are a good way to raise awareness about an issue. You can suggest to your AMs that they hold an individual debate, persuade their party group to hold an opposition debate or propose amendments. If you know that a debate is planned, you can contact your AM to tell them your views on the topic and ask him or her to ask questions or raise points during the debate.

Welsh Government consultations

Consultations are documents published by the Welsh Government to set out choices and policy proposals and to get feedback from people outside the Assembly. They may be published by the Welsh Government or by organisations working on behalf of the Welsh Government.

Consultations ask for views on an issue or set of issues. For example, the Welsh Government consulted in summer 2012 on its plans for a new social services law for Wales. There is usually a list of questions for people to respond to but you do not have to answer them all. They have a deadline on a specific date and you cannot submit feedback after the deadline.

Current  consultations are available on the Welsh Government's website.

Sense’s campaign work in Wales

If you are interested in getting involved in Sense’s campaign work in Wales please get in touch with the Sense Public Policy team by emailing campaigns.info@sense.org.uk or calling 0845 127 0068 / textphone 0845 127 0062.