The secretary of state for Wales, 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 of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.
The secretary of state for Scotland, also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Secretary of State for Scotland serves as the custodian of the Scottish devolution settlement as outlined in the Scotland Act 1998, and represent Scottish interests within the UK Government as well as advocate for UK Government policies in Scotland. The secretary of state for Scotland is additionally responsible for partnership between the UK Government and the Scottish Government, as well as relations between the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Scottish Parliament.
Paul Peter Murphy, Baron Murphy of Torfaen, is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torfaen from 1987 to 2015, and served in the Cabinet from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2009 in the roles of Northern Irish and Welsh Secretary. He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
Alun Edward Michael is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative retired politician. He served as Secretary of State for Wales from 1998 to 1999 and then as the first First Secretary of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 1999 to 2000. He went on to serve as South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 to 2024.
Dame Cheryl Elise Kendall Gillan was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Chesham and Amersham from 1992 until her death in 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Secretary of State for Wales from 2010 to 2012.
Ian Colin Lucas is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wrexham, Wales from 2001 to 2019. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business and Regulatory Reform in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2009 until Labour's defeat at the 2010 General Election.
Edward Rowlands, Baron Rowlands is a Welsh politician, who served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament for over thirty years, including a period as a junior minister in the 1960s and 1970s.
David George Hanson, Baron Hanson of Flint,, is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Minister of State for the Home Office since July 2024. He previously served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Delyn from 1992 to 2019. He held several ministerial offices in the Blair and Brown governments, serving in the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Wales Office, the Northern Ireland Office and the Whips' Office. Hanson sat on Ed Miliband's opposition front bench as a shadow treasury minister, and later the shadow immigration minister.
David Ian Jones is a British politician and former solicitor who briefly served as the Assembly Member for North Wales between 2002 and 2003 and then as Member of Parliament (MP) for Clwyd West from 2005 to 2024. He sat in the cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales from 2012 to 2014 making him the first Secretary of State for Wales to have served as an Assembly Member.
Jennifer Elizabeth Randerson, Baroness Randerson is a Welsh Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is a former junior minister in the Wales Office serving in the Cameron–Clegg coalition. Prior to her peerage she was an Assembly Member for Cardiff Central from 1999 to 2011 when she served in the Welsh Labour-Lib Dem administration of the 2000–2003 Welsh Assembly Government.
Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts, Baron Roberts of Conwy, PC was a Welsh Conservative politician.
Dafydd Elystan Elystan-Morgan, Baron Elystan-Morgan, known as Elystan Morgan, was a Welsh politician. He sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords from 1981 to 2020, and served as a Labour MP from 1966 to 1974.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Wales, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party is led by Jane Dodds, who has served as an MS for Mid and West Wales since May 2021. The party currently has one elected member in the Senedd and one Welsh seat in the UK House of Commons. It also has several members of the House of Lords. The party had 69 local councillors serving in principal authorities as of the 2022 local authority elections, up 10 from 2017.
A referendum on the powers of the National Assembly for Wales was held on 3 March 2011. Voters were asked whether the Assembly should have full law-making powers in the twenty subject areas where it has jurisdiction. The referendum asked the question: ‘Do you want the Assembly now to be able to make laws on all matters in the 20 subject areas it has powers for?’
Gwilym Prys Prys-Davies, Baron Prys-Davies was a Welsh Labour politician. He was a pioneer of the use of the Welsh language for official purposes, and in 1982 became the first member of the House of Lords to take the oath of allegiance in Welsh.
Fay Alicia Jones is a British former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brecon and Radnorshire from 2019 to 2024. She is a member of the Conservative Party and a former junior government minister.
Welsh devolution is the transfer of legislative powers for self-governance to Wales by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current system of devolution began following the enactment of the Government of Wales Act 1998, with the responsibility of various devolved powers granted to the Welsh Government rather than being the responsibility of the Government of the United Kingdom.
Ieuan Wyn Jones became Leader of the Opposition in Wales after being elected as President of Plaid Cymru, the Official Opposition in the National Assembly for Wales, on 3 August 2000. Jones had previously served in these roles in an acting capacity on the behalf of his predecessor Dafydd Wigley from December 1999 to February 2000. He formed his shadow cabinet on 9 August and, like his predecessor, appointed himself Shadow First Secretary of Wales and Shadow Assembly Secretary for Finance. Members of his shadow cabinet were initially known as shadow assembly secretaries until October 2000. From that month, members were known as shadow ministers, with Jones's titles also changing to Shadow First Minister of Wales and Shadow Minister for Finance, after a similar change was made to the names of ministerial posts in Rhodri Morgan's coalition government between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Jones's shadow cabinet was dissolved after the formation of a coalition government between Plaid Cymru and Morgan's Labour Party on 19 July 2007.
