The Welsh Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Wales. The government consists of cabinet secretaries and ministers. It is led by the first minister, usually the leader of the largest party in the Senedd, who selects ministers with the approval of the Senedd. The government is responsible for tabling policy in devolved areas for consideration by the Senedd and implementing policy that has been approved by it.
Mair Eluned Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Ely,, is a Welsh Labour politician who has served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour since 2024. She previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in the Welsh Government from 2021 to 2024.
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).
The economy of Wales is part of the wider economy of the United Kingdom, and encompasses the production and consumption of goods, services and the supply of money in Wales.
Shell Foundation is a philanthropic foundation that is working towards alleviating poverty for millions of people in Africa and Asia. It supports clean energy solutions that raise incomes while cutting emissions. As an independent and registered charity in England and Wales, the Shell Foundation is an initiative of the oil major Shell plc, envisioned in 1997, as a worldwide, social investment initiative to concentrate on working with external partners to promote sustainable development.
Welsh independence is the political movement advocating for Wales to become a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom.
The Counsel General for Wales is the Welsh Government's Law Officer, which means the government's chief legal adviser and representative in the courts. In addition to these "lawyer" roles the Counsel General also works to uphold the rule of law and integrity of the legal community in Wales, and has a number of important specific statutory functions, some of which are to be exercised independently of government and in the public interest.
A Welsh Government sponsored body (WGSB) is a non-departmental public body directly funded by the Welsh Government. Under the Government of Wales Act 1998 the bodies were sponsored by the National Assembly for Wales and were known as an Assembly sponsored public body, and this was changed by the Schedule 3 of the Wales Act 2017 which amended the Government of Wales Act 2006.
Jonathan Neil Reynolds is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Business and Trade and President of the Board of Trade since July 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stalybridge and Hyde since 2010.
Rebecca Mary Evans is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Energy and Planning since September 2024. She previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Finance from 2018 to 2024, and for the Constitution and Cabinet Office in 2024. Evans has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Gower since 2016, and a Member for Mid and West Wales from 2011 to 2016.
RenewableUK Cymru is the Wales branch of RenewableUK, and is the trade body for all renewable energy, and smart energy and storage technologies in Wales.
Hannah Blythyn is a Welsh politician who served as the Minister for Social Partnership in the Welsh Government from 2021 to 2024. She was previously the Environment Minister from 2017 to 2018 and the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government from 2018 to 2021. A member of Welsh Labour and Co-operative Party, she has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Delyn since 2016.
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.
Nation.Cymru (transl. Nation.Wales) is a Welsh news service established in 2017 with the aim of creating a national English-language news service for Wales. It receives £20,000 a year from the Books Council of Wales and the rest of its financial support comes from 1,000 monthly subscribers to the site.
In 2019, Wales generated 27% of its electricity consumption as renewable electricity, an increase from 19% in 2014. The Welsh Government set a target of 70% by 2030. In 2019, Wales was a net exporter of electricity. It produced 27.9 TWh of electricity while only consuming 14.7 TWh. The natural resource base for renewable energy is high by European standards, with the core sources being wind, wave, and tidal. Wales has a long history of renewable energy: in the 1880s, the first house in Wales with electric lighting powered from its own hydro-electric power station was in Plas Tan y Bwlch, Gwynedd. In 1963, the Ffestiniog Power Station was constructed, providing a large scale generation of hydroelectricity, and in November 1973, the Centre for Alternative Technology was opened in Machynlleth.
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.
There have been calls for further Welsh devolution, increasing the autonomy for Wales, since the Welsh legislature of the Senedd was founded following the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum.
In December 2021, the Welsh Labour government and Plaid Cymru signed a three-year co-operation agreement, where the two parties agreed to work together in 46 policy areas. The agreement was not a coalition or confidence and supply agreement; Plaid Cymru remained in opposition but appointed advisers to offices of the Welsh Government.
Ynni Cymru is a publicly owned energy company of the Welsh Government, based in Anglesey, Wales. The company launched in August 2023, and it aims to support investment in Welsh community-owned renewable energy generation, although its full responsibility in the projects it funds are still to be determined.
Great British Energy is a planned British governmental investment body and publicly owned energy generation company that forms part of the Labour Party's plans for energy policy. The proposed body would invest in renewable energy and own, manage and operate clean power projects. The Labour government intends to pass legislation in the form of a "Great British Energy Bill" to enable the creation of the company.
