The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century.
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyrood. The Parliament is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), elected for five-year terms under the additional member system: 73 MSPs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality (first-past-the-post) system, while a further 56 are returned as list members from eight additional member regions. Each region elects seven party-list MSPs. Each region elects 15 to 17 MSPs in total. The most recent general election to the Parliament was held on 6 May 2021, with the Scottish National Party winning a plurality.
The Senedd ; lit. 'parliament' or 'senate'), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and Senedd Cymru in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees to certain taxes, and scrutinises the Welsh Government. It is a bilingual institution, with both Welsh and English being the official languages of its business. From its creation in May 1999 until May 2020, the Senedd was known as the National Assembly for Wales.
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.
Politics in Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).
Sir Vernon Bernard Bogdanor is a British political scientist, historian, and research professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London. He is also emeritus professor of politics and government at the University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford.
The Clerk of the House of Commons is the chief executive of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 of the House of Commons of England.
Nicholas Henry Bourne, Baron Bourne of Aberystwyth is a Conservative Party politician who served as Leader of the Welsh Conservative Party and Member of the Senedd for Mid and West Wales from August 1999 until May 2011.
There are four types of elections in Wales: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to the devolved Senedd, local elections to the 22 principal areas, and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, in addition to by-elections for each aforementioned election. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Since the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for UK general elections, all four types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the UK parliament can occur in certain situations, with Senedd elections being postponed to avoid elections to the UK parliament and Senedd coinciding with each other.
The Constitution Unit is an independent and non-partisan research centre based within the Department of Political Science at University College London. It analyses constitutional change and its effects. The unit was founded in 1995 by Robert Hazell and specialises in the study of parliament and parliamentary reform; elections and referendums; monarchy, church and state; devolution; constitution-making; freedom of information legislation; courts and the legal system; and the relationship between the UK and EU.
Welsh law is an autonomous part of the English law system composed of legislation made by the Senedd. Wales is part of the legal jurisdiction of England and Wales, one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. However, due to devolution, the law in Wales is increasingly distinct from the law in England, since the Senedd, the devolved parliament of Wales, can legislate on non-reserved matters.
The Commission on Scottish Devolution, also referred to as the Calman Commission or the Scottish Parliament Commission or Review, was established by an opposition Labour Party motion passed by the Scottish Parliament on 6 December 2007, with the support of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The governing Scottish National Party opposed the creation of the commission.
Adam Tomkins is a British academic and politician who is the John Millar Professor of Public Law at the University of Glasgow School of Law. A member of the Scottish Conservatives, he was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region from 2016 to 2021, when he stood down for that year's elections.
Sir Michael Addison John Wheeler-Booth was a British public servant and Clerk of the Parliaments. He was educated at Leighton Park School, Reading, and Magdalen College, Oxford.
In the United Kingdom, devolution is the Parliament of the United Kingdom's statutory granting of a greater level of self-government to the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the London Assembly and to their associated executive bodies the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and in England, the Greater London Authority and combined authorities.
Robert James Rogers, Baron Lisvane,, FLSW is a British life peer and retired public servant. He served as Clerk of the House of Commons from October 2011 until August 2014.
The Commission on Devolution in Wales, also known as the Silk Commission, was an independent commission established by Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan on 11 October 2011. The commission was based at the Wales Office Cardiff headquarters, at Cardiff Bay and met for the first time on 4 November 2011 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. The commission reviewed the case for the devolution of fiscal powers to the Welsh Assembly, now the Senedd, and considered the case for increasing the powers of the assembly. It published its findings in two parts.
The Commission on the consequences of devolution for the House of Commons, also known as the McKay Commission, was an independent commission established in the United Kingdom to consider issues arising from devolution in the United Kingdom and their effect on the workings of the House of Commons. In the statement made by the government when setting up the commission, it referred to the West Lothian question, a term coined in 1977 to refer to anomalies existing in the pre-devolution government of the UK.
Federalism in the United Kingdom aims at constitutional reform to achieve a federal UK or a British federation, where there is a division of legislative powers between two or more levels of government, so that sovereignty is decentralised between a federal government and autonomous governments in a federal system.
Welsh devolution is the transfer of legislative power for self-governance to Wales by the Government of the United Kingdom.
