An Act of the National Assembly for Wales to make provision for the powers of county councils, county borough councils, community councils and other public bodies to make byelaws; the procedure for making byelaws; the enforcement of byelaws; and for connected purposes.
The Local Government Byelaws (Wales) Act 2012 (Welsh: Deddf Is-ddeddfau Llywodraeth Leol (Cymru) 2012) (anaw 2) is an act of the National Assembly for Wales for giving local authorities in Wales the ability to make byelaws.
The bill was referred to the supreme court which upheld it.[1]Lady Hale noted "Constitutional adjudication is a new animal for us... [This case] comes before the [supreme] court, not in a concrete case, but as pure constitutional review along continental lines. This is, as far as I know, the first case in which this has happened. We are not used to deciding cases in the abstract, without reference to a particular set of facts."[1]
The Act replaces the process for Welsh ministers and the UK ministers to approve byelaws made by local authorities in Wales.[4] The Supreme Court ruled that the provisions removing powers of UK ministers were "incidental to" and "consequential on" the main purpose of the law, which was to remove powers of the Welsh ministers.[5]
Reception
The process of approval of Welsh laws by UK ministers has been described as anachronistic.[6]
Comparison to other UK jurisdictions
The UK Parliament, Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly retain control for approving bye-laws.[7]
Examples of bye-laws
Under the Act, Conwy County Borough Council introduced a byelaw "to prohibit the feeding of seagulls on North Shore, Llandudno, this should be finalised later this year."[8]
Byelaws can be used to enabling the clamping of cars.[9]
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