Senedd Cymru (Member Accountability and Elections) Act 2026

4 Trigger event A: courts to notify the Presiding Officer

(1) This section applies if a Member of the Senedd, after becoming a Member of the Senedd, is convicted of an offence in England and Wales and sentenced or ordered to be imprisoned or detained within the meaning of section 2(2) (see section 3).

(2) The court that imposes the sentence or order in relation to the conviction must notify the Presiding Officer of the conviction and of the sentence or order.

(3) Subsection (4) applies in a case in which an appeal is brought in respect of the conviction, sentence or order (including from a court that determines or otherwise disposes of such an appeal).

(4) If the conviction, sentence or order is overturned on appeal, the court to which the appeal was brought or remitted by another court must notify the Presiding Officer of that fact.

(5) References in this section to an appeal—

(a) are to an appeal to a court in England and Wales (including the Supreme Court);

(b) include an application (and accordingly references to an appeal being brought include an application being made);

(c) do not include a reference under Part 2 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 (c. 35) (the Criminal Cases Review Commission).

(6) References in this section to the determination of an appeal are, where the court to which the appeal is brought remits the matter to another court, to the disposal of the proceedings by that other court.

(7) In this section, “overturned on appeal” means—

(a) in relation to a conviction, that there is no longer a conviction for the purposes of section 2(2);

(b) in relation to a sentence or order—

(i) varied so that it is no longer a sentence or order that the Member of the Senedd be imprisoned or detained within the meaning of section 2(2);

(ii) replaced with another sentence or order that is not a sentence or order that the Member of the Senedd be imprisoned or detained within the meaning of section 2(2).

(8) A court is not required under this section to notify the Presiding Officer if, at any time since the application of the section, the Member of the Senedd’s seat has been vacated.