The Senedd's powers in economic matters are significantly restricted by the UK Internal Market Act 2020,[10] a primary purpose of which is to constrain the capacity of the devolved institutions to use their regulatory autonomy.

[11] Matters devolved to the Senedd include health, education, economic development, transport, the environment, agriculture, local government and some taxes.

Charles III Heir Apparent William, Prince of Wales First Minister (list) Rt Hon Eluned Morgan MS (L) Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MS (L) Counsel General-designate – Elisabeth Jones Chief Whip and Trefnydd – Jane Hutt MS (L) Permanent Secretary Sixth Senedd Llywydd (Presiding Officer) Elin Jones MS (PC) Leader of the Opposition Darren Millar MS (C) Shadow Cabinet Prime Minister Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP (L) Secretary of State for Wales Rt Hon Jo Stevens MP (L) Principal councils (leader list) Corporate Joint Committees Local twinning see also: Regional terms and Regional economy United Kingdom Parliament elections European Parliament elections (1979–2020) Local elections Police and crime commissioner elections Referendums An appointed Council for Wales and Monmouthshire was 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".

[18] It also recommended changing the electoral system to the single transferable vote (STV) which would produce greater proportionality.

Plaid Cymru, the Official Opposition in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2007, attacked it[citation needed] for not delivering a fully-fledged parliament.

[21] Following a referendum on 3 March 2011, the Welsh Assembly gained direct law making powers, without the need to consult Westminster.

The Conservative-Liberal coalition government created the Commission 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.

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 the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly) where the UK government would have specific "reserved" powers and the Welsh Assembly would have control of all other matters.

[25] The Wales 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.

[32][33] As part of the process of leaving the European Union, the Conservative Party in power in Westminster passed the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020.

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.

[40][43] It also expressly reserves the regulation of distortive or harmful subsidies to the UK Government, and gives them spending powers in numerous policymaking areas.

[34] 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.

[40][43] On 22 November 2021, Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru agreed a co-operation deal[44] that will see the implementation of 46 policies that the two parties share.

[49] Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds criticised these plans, claiming that they would disproportionately impact smaller parties.

When the Senedd building opened on 1 March 2006, there was regular screening of live proceedings from the Siambr on S4C2 and also on internet television.

[64] Key events such as First Minister's Questions are shown live and recorded on BBC Parliament on television and on iPlayer.

In October 2023, GB News was 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".

The most senior permanent official is the chief executive and clerk, and the position is currently held by Manon Antoniazzi.

[72][73][74] 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.

For example, the first Government of Wales Act gave the Assembly power to amend primary legislation relating to the merger of certain public bodies.

In 2001 the UK parliament used primary legislation to delay for one month local elections in England during the Foot-and-mouth disease epidemic.

Until 2015 the Assembly had no tax-varying powers, however it could influence the rate of Council Tax set by local authorities, which are part-funded by a grant from the Welsh government.

[80] This means the Senedd has powers over areas such as: Reserved matters include subjects such as: Under the Additional Member System,[81][82] forty of the MSs are elected from single-member constituencies on a plurality voting system (or first past the post) basis, the constituencies being equivalent to those used for the House of Commons and twenty MSs are elected from regional closed lists using an alternative party vote.

Due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, it held First Minister's Questions using Zoom videotelephony software and the session was subsequently broadcast by Senedd.tv.

[90] In their 2004 paper Turnout, Participation and Legitimacy in Post-Devolution Wales, academics Roger Awan-Scully, Richard Wyn Jones and Dafydd Trystan Davies identified three potential reasons for this: antipathy to the Welsh institutions, apathy to the Welsh institutions or apathy to politics more generally.

"[92] He compared turnout in Wales to turnout for Scottish Parliament elections, 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 of independence – basically is going to be determined by what happens at the Holyrood elections.

[94] On 17 May 2024, Plaid Cymru announced it would uniliaterally exit the agreement due to concerns with the Labour government's ethics.