General
Section 20 - Power to make consequential, transitional etc. provision
85.Section 20 provides a power to make provision for certain purposes connected with implementing the Act. This includes a power to amend other primary and secondary legislation. Where the power is used to amend, repeal or modify primary legislation, the resulting Statutory Instrument is subject to the affirmative procedure in the Senedd (see section 22); otherwise, it is subject to the negative procedure.
Section 21 - Power to set Senedd election campaign expenditure limits in connection with section 1 and Part 2
86.In connection with the changes made by section 1 (number of Members of the Senedd and Senedd constituencies) and Part 2 (voting system at Senedd general elections and Allocation of Seats), section 21 provides the Welsh Ministers with a power to make regulations to amend paragraph 6 of Schedule 9 to the Political Parties, Elections, and Referendums Act 2000 (limits on campaign expenditure) to set the limits for campaign expenditure incurred by or on behalf of a registered party that is contesting seats in a general election to the Senedd.
87.Such limits may be set by reference to either the number of constituencies the party is contesting at a general election, or the number of candidates on a party’s candidate list(s), or both. This power includes a power to amend other primary and secondary legislation.
88.Regulations made under section 21 may only be made with the consent of the Electoral Commission and are subject to the affirmative procedure in the Senedd.
Section 22 - Regulations under this Act
89.Section 22 makes general provision about regulations made under the Act (except those made under paragraph 9 of Schedule 2; the provision relating to the making of those amendments can be found in Schedule 2 itself), including the Senedd procedures applicable to those regulations.
Section 23 - Interpretation
90.Section 23 defines certain expressions used in the Act, and indicates where in the Act the definitions of certain other expressions can be found.
Section 24 - Transitional provision relating to Parts 1 and 2
91.Section 24 makes transitional provision relating to Parts 1 and 2.
92.There is a convention that changes to electoral law should come into force at least 6 months before the date of the notice of the election at which they first apply. This is to give electoral administrators certainty as to the law governing a forthcoming election and sufficient time to prepare for it, including time to understand and give effect to changes in the law. For this reason, whilst section 25 provides for the changes made by this Act to the size of the Senedd, constituencies, the voting system and disqualification of candidates and Members, together with the related amendments to other enactments (see section 10), to come into force two months after Royal Assent, the effect of section 24 is to delay those changes from taking effect until the first general election held on or after 7 April 2026 (for these purposes, it is the date of the poll for the general election that is relevant). That date is the earliest date the Presiding Officer could, under section 4 of the 2006 Act, propose for the poll for the next scheduled ordinary general election (which, under section 3 of the 2006 Act, is scheduled for 7 May 2026). The result of section 24 is that any general election which may be held before that date, would be held under the pre-existing law i.e. the mixed member electoral system provided for in the 2006 Act. Similarly, the Act’s other changes mentioned in section 24(1) and (2) (including, for example, the changes to how vacancies arising between general elections are dealt with) will not take effect in respect of any Senedd returned as a result of a poll which is held before 7 April 2026.
93.Section 3 of the Act reduces the time between ordinary general elections to four years and section 25 provides for that change to come into force on the day after the day of the poll for the first general election held after 7 November 2025. Section 24(3) and (4) confirm that, in the case that an extraordinary general election is held after that date but before the ordinary general election scheduled for May 2026 (which would result in that ordinary general election not taking place: see section 5(5) of the 2006 Act), the next ordinary general election would be due to take place in 2030.
Section 25 - Coming into force
94.Section 25 makes provision for the coming into force of the Act as follows:
Part 3, section 17, Part 5 (other than section 20), and Schedule 2 come into force on the day after the Act receives Royal Assent.
Sections 1, 2, 6, 7, 18, 19 21, Part 2, and Schedule 3 come into force two months after the day on which the Act receives Royal Assent.
Section 3 comes into force the day after the day of a poll for the first general election held after 7 November 2025.
Sections 4 and 5 come into force the day after the day of a poll for the first general election held after 6 April 2026.
Section 26 - Short title
95.This section provides that the Act’s short title is the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024.
