The Wales Act 1978 was an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

intended to introduce a limited measure of self-government in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

through the creation of a Welsh Assembly. The act never took effect as a result of the "no" vote in

1979 Welsh devolution referendum The 1979 Welsh devolution referendum was a post-legislative referendum held on 1 March 1979 (Saint David's Day) to decide whether there was sufficient support for a Welsh Assembly among the Welsh electorate. The referendum was held under the ter ...

and was repealed in 1979.

Welsh Assembly proposed by the Act

Had the Wales Act 1978 entered force, it would have created a Welsh Assembly without primary legislative or tax raising powers. The proposed assembly would have had 72 members elected by the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

system with each Westminster constituency returning either two or three assembly members. It would have met at the

Coal Exchange The Coal Exchange (also known as the Exchange Building) is an historic building in Cardiff, Wales. It is designed in Renaissance Revival style. Built in 1888 as the Coal and Shipping Exchange to be used as a market floor and office building for ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. It was planned that assembly would have operated under the committee system where subject committees would be formed with representation of all groups in the assembly. An Executive Committee would have been formed composed of the chairs of the various subject committees and other members selected by the assembly. A Chairman of the Executive Committee would have been selected who would also be Leader of the Assembly.

Powers

The assembly would have had the ability to pass secondary legislation with responsibility for primary legislation remaining with the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

at Westminster. It would have taken over the powers and functions of the

Secretary of State for Wales The secretary of state for Wales ( cy, ysgrifennydd gwladol Cymru), also referred to as the Welsh secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Wales Office. The incumbent is a member ...

. The proposed assembly would have had responsibility for: *housing *health *education *planning *management of the

Welsh Development Agency Welsh Development Agency (WDA; cy, Awdurdod Datblygu Cymru) was an executive agency (or QUANGO) and later designated an Assembly Sponsored Public Body (ASPB). Established in 1976, it was tasked with rescuing the ailing Welsh economy by encour ...

*appointments to Welsh quangos *it would be able to aid the development of: **Welsh language **museums and galleries **libraries **arts and crafts **sport **culture **recreation

Referendum

The provisions of the Act were put to the populace in 1979 in a referendum held on 1 March 1979 through the question: *'Do you want the provisions of the Wales Act 1978 to be put into effect?' The results of the referendum were:

Repeal

As a result of the negative referendum outcome, the Act never took effect, and was repealed in accordance with the Act's own provisions by the ''Wales Act 1978 (Repeal) Order 1979''.

References

External links

Wales Act 1979
{{UK legislation Government of Wales United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1978 Constitutional laws of Wales Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning Wales Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 20th century in Wales 1978 in Wales Welsh devolution Referendums in Wales