Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024

5 Pilot regulations: powers

(1) The Welsh Ministers may by regulations make Welsh election pilot provision (“pilot regulations”).

(2) Welsh election pilot provision is provision that—

(a) relates to one or more relevant electoral matters,

(b) has effect for a specified period or a specified Welsh election,

(c) applies in relation to an electoral area or two or more electoral areas, and

(d) is either—

(i) not in elections legislation,

(ii) different from provision in elections legislation, or

(iii) connected to provision of the kind specified in sub-paragraph (i) or (ii).

(3) The relevant electoral matters are—

(a) registration of persons eligible to vote in a Welsh election, including (among other things)—

(i) the rights and duties of individuals as regards registration,

(ii) the administration of registration and the register of electors,

(iii) access to and publication of the register of electors,

but it does not include any condition of eligibility for registration provided for in primary legislation;

(b) when, where and how voting at a Welsh election is to take place;

(c) how the votes cast at a Welsh election are to be counted;

(d) communication with voters about a Welsh election;

(e) processes and procedures before, on or after polling in a Welsh election.

(4) Welsh election pilot provision also includes provision made for the purpose of testing how the changes made by‍ sections 3 and 4work in practice—

(a) that has effect for a specified period or a specified Welsh election,

(b) that applies in relation to an electoral area or two or more electoral areas, and

(c) the effect of which corresponds to the effect of the amendments made by‍ sections 3 and 4 (or the subordinate legislation that may be made by virtue of those sections).

(5) Pilot regulations may implement proposals for pilot regulations made under this Act with or without modifications to the proposal.

(6) Pilot regulations may create, remove or modify offences.

(7) Pilot regulations must not create an offence that is punishable (or modify an offence so that it becomes punishable)—

(a) on conviction on indictment, with imprisonment for a term exceeding one year;

(b) on summary conviction, with imprisonment for a term exceeding the applicable limit for a summary offence or an either way offence (as the case may be) under section 224(1A) of the Sentencing Code (as it has effect from time to time).

(8) In this section—

• “electoral area” (“ardal etholiadol”) means—

  (a)

  in relation to the return of a member of Senedd Cymru, a Senedd constituency;

  (b)

  in relation to a local government election, the area of a council to which the election applies or any part of its area;

• “elections legislation” (“deddfwriaeth etholiadau”) means an enactment (whenever passed or made) that applies in relation to—

  (a)

  a Welsh election, or

  (b)

  registration of persons eligible to vote in a Welsh election;

• “primary legislation”(“deddfwriaeth sylfaenol”) means provision contained in an Act of Senedd Cymru or an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom;

• “specified” (“penodedig” ac “a bennir”) means specified in pilot regulations;

• “Welsh election” (“etholiad Cymreig”) means an election for the return of a member of—

  (a)

  Senedd Cymru;

  (b)

  the council of a county or county borough in Wales;

  (c)

  the council of a community in Wales.