Wales: The Devolved Legislature and Administration
The Assembly established in 1999 was a body corporate with executive as well as legislative and scrutiny responsibilities. While the majority of the executive functions were delegated to Ministers, subject committees - with the relevant Minister as a member - also played an important role in policy development. However, this structure could mean that committees were not able to devote sufficient time to questioning Ministers and that it could be difficult to switch from a mode of consensual policy development to one of scrutiny.
Steps were taken to clarify the distinction between the Assembly's legislative and executive arms. In particular, from 2002, the Assembly resolved to create a de facto separation, adopting the title ‘Welsh Assembly Government’ for the executive.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 replaced the corporate body with a new National Assembly for Wales and a separate executive, the ‘Welsh Assembly Government’, made up of Ministers who are members of, and accountable to, the Assembly. The executive powers and functions of the Assembly as created under the Government of Wales Act 1998, including the power to make subordinate legislation, were transferred to Welsh Ministers.
Elections
The Assembly has 60 members - 40 are directly elected by the ‘first-past-the-post’ system to represent individual constituencies, and 20 selected under the Additional Member System of proportional representation, each representing one of five electoral regions. Elections are held every four years, and the next election to the Assembly is due in May 2011. More information about how Assembly Members (AMs) are elected can be found on the National Assembly for Wales' website.
In previous Assembly elections, candidates were free to stand for both a constituency and a region. This meant that candidates who were not successful in the constituency election had a second chance of being elected, especially if they were highly placed on the party list. The 2006 Act removed this option. Candidates must now choose whether to stand in the constituency or regional election, but are barred from standing in both.
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