Government of Wales Act 2006

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 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.

The Government of Wales Act 2006 was criticised by Plaid Cymru for not delivering a fully-fledged parliament.

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

• Government of Wales Act 2006 website
• Assembly Powers Tracking Notes
• WAGs tracking notes