The Wales Act 2014legislation.gov.uk
Wales Act 2014 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

. The bill was introduced to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

on 20 March 2014 by

Chief Secretary to the Treasury The chief secretary to the Treasury is a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom. The office is the second most senior in the Treasury, after the chancellor of the Exchequer. The office was created in 1961, to share the burden ...

, Danny Alexander and Secretary of State for Wales, David Jones. The purpose of the bill was to implement some of the recommendations of the Silk Commission aimed at devolving further powers from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It passed the final hurdles in Parliament and received

Royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 17 December 2014, becoming law.Parliament
Wales Act 2014

Provisions

The Act's provisions include the following: * Devolving stamp duty, business rates and landfill tax to Wales and enabling the

Welsh Assembly The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gov ...

to replace them with new taxes specific to Wales. Further taxes can also be devolved, with the agreement of the UK Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. * Providing for a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

in Wales on whether an element of

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

should be devolved. If there is a vote in favour then the Welsh Assembly will be able to set a Welsh income tax rate. Fluctuations in revenues will be managed by new borrowing powers for Welsh Ministers. * Extending Welsh Assembly terms permanently from four to five years in order to reduce the chance of Assembly elections clashing with general elections to the Westminster Parliament as a result of the

Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (c. 14) (FTPA) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that for the first time set in legislation a default fixed election date for a general election to the Westminster parliament. Since the repea ...

. * Removing the prohibition on candidates in Welsh Assembly elections from standing in a constituency and also being on the regional list. * Prohibiting

Welsh Assembly Member A Member of the Senedd (MS; plural: ''MSs''; cy, Aelodau o'r Senedd; , plural:) (AS)., group=la is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd ...

s from also being MPs (see dual mandate). * Formally changing the Welsh Assembly Government’s name to the

Welsh Government , image = , caption = , date_established = , country = Wales , address = , leader_title = First Minister () , appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...

. * Clarifying the position of the First Minister between dissolution of the Assembly and an Assembly election. * Allowing Welsh Ministers to set a limit for the amount of housing debt that individual local housing authorities in Wales may hold. The UK

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or ...

will limit the total Welsh housing debt. * Requiring the

Law Commission A law commission, law reform commission, or law revision commission is an independent body set up by a government to conduct law reform; that is, to consider the state of laws in a jurisdiction and make recommendations or proposals for legal chan ...

to provide advice and information to Welsh Ministers on the law reform matters that they referred to the Commission.

References

External links

legislation.gov.uk
Wales Act 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wales Act 2014 United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2014 Government of Wales Senedd Constitutional laws of Wales Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning Wales Welsh devolution 2014 in British law 2014 in British politics 2014 in Wales December 2014 events in the United Kingdom

Provisions

See also

References

External links