Limited legislative powers

The National Assembly for Wales can now make its own legislation on certain devolved matters. Wales still does not have full law-making powers and can only do what is permitted under the 1998 and 2006 Acts. The Assembly can only legislate in areas that have been specifically devolved from the UK Parliament.

There are 20 devolved policy areas in which Wales may be able to legislate. Laws can only be made on specifically defined sub-topics and the Assembly must first obtain the legal power from the UK Parliament to legislate in one of the devolved areas before being able to make laws.

It is useful to stress that whilst this means Welsh law-making in many different areas, it does not mean law-making in all areas and there are still many areas that have not been devolved. This means that the UK Parliament at Westminster is still the sole legislator in areas including defence, foreign affairs, fiscal, monetary and economic policy, broadcasting, social security, immigration, employment law, policing and criminal law.