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Member of the Senedd

Representative in the devolved parliament of Wales

Field	Value
post	Member
body	the Senedd
native_name	cy
incumbent	6th Senedd
incumbentsince	2021 election
type	Member of Parliament
abbreviation	MS (plural: MSs);
(, plural: ASau)
member_of	the Senedd
residence	Senedd building
seat	List of constituencies and electoral regions
termlength	5 years
constituting_instrument	Government of Wales Act 1998
inaugural	1st National Assembly
formation	1999
unofficial_names	Member of the Welsh Parliament;
Welsh Parliament Member;
Assembly Member (AM; 19992020)
salary	£67,920

(, plural: ASau) Welsh Parliament Member; Assembly Member (AM; 19992020)

A member of the Senedd (MS; plural: MSs; ; , plural: ASau), also known as a member of the Welsh Parliament, is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd constituencies, and twenty to represent the five electoral regions of the Senedd in Wales.

Each person in Wales is represented by five MSs: one for their local constituency (encompassing their local area where they reside), and another four covering their electoral region (a large grouping of constituencies). Wales's five electoral regions are Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East and South Wales West.

A holder of this office was formerly known as an assembly member (AM; plural: AMs; ; , plural: ACau), under the legislature's former name, the National Assembly for Wales, from its inception in 1999 until 2020 when it adopted its current names, Welsh Parliament, and , simply referred to as Senedd in both English and Welsh.

Since 2011, members are elected for a five-year term of office under an additional member system, in which 40 MSs represent smaller geographical divisions known as "constituencies" and are elected by first-past-the-post voting, and 20 MSs represent five "electoral regions" using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation. Typically, the largest party holding the largest number of MSs in the Senedd forms the Welsh Government, and in the event of not securing a majority of MSs, the largest party has first rights to begin coalition talks with other smaller parties. Prior to 2011, they held four-year terms, with some MSs calling for a return of four-year terms from the current five. From the next Senedd election, due in 2026, the size of the Senedd will increase to 96.

Methods of election

MSs are elected in one of two ways:

First-past-the-post constituency or
Regional additional-member

Forty are elected as constituency MSs and twenty are elected as additional members, four from each of five regional groups of constituencies. This additional member system produces a form of proportional representation for each region.

Elections

All MSs positions become simultaneously vacant for elections held on a five-year cycle. If a vacancy arises at another time, due to death or resignation, it may be filled in one of two ways, depending on whether the vacancy is for a first-past-the-post constituency MS or for an additional-member MS.

A constituency vacancy may be filled by a by-election. An additional member vacancy may be filled by the next available candidate on the relevant party list.

Renaming

Holders of this office were first called an "Assembly Member" (), abbreviated to "AM" in English (plural: AMs; or in , plural: ACau), under the legislature's then name, the National Assembly for Wales, from its inception in 1999.

In June 2018, the Assembly Commission held a public consultation into a potential name change, with the commission favouring the title "Welsh Parliament Member", abbreviated to "WPM", in line with the existing name. The public consultation showed the most supported option was "Member of the Welsh Parliament" (MWP) at 30%, followed by "Member of the Senedd" (MS) on 28.4%, and the commission's preferred option on 11.1%. "Member of the Welsh Parliament", abbreviated to MWP, raised concerns from some AMs, over potential ridicle. Their concerns were that the abbreviation "MWP" was too close to Welsh words "twp" () and "pwp" (), or sounding similar to a Welsh pronunciation of "muppet". Elin Jones, Presiding Officer of National Assembly for Wales, called for the legislature to be called just the "Senedd", leading to members being called a "Member of the Senedd" as a way to address the concerns. Although this raised its own concerns that the corresponding Welsh name "Aelod o'r Senedd" would have the same Welsh abbreviation as "Aelodau Seneddol" for Members of Parliament to the UK Parliament.

In 2020, the legislature was renamed following the ratification of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020, which renamed the legislature as the "Welsh Parliament" in English, and "" in Welsh. Holders of the office would instead be called a "Member of the Senedd", abbreviated to "MS", or in Welsh, Aelod o'r Senedd (AS). While "Member(s) of the Welsh Parliament" has also been used.

Notes

References

[http://exploretheassembly.org/lang/en-uk/your-am/what-does-an-am-do-welsh Explore the Assembly education website] {{webarchive. link. (11 January 2013)
"Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020".
Commission, Assembly. "Explanatory Notes to Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020".
(2021-07-06). "Call for Senedd to return to elections every four years as Westminster poised to scrap fixed terms".
(2021-05-19). "Mark Drakeford backs calls for bigger Welsh Parliament". BBC News.
"Welsh democracy is under threat, we need more members of the Senedd now more than ever".
"Government of Wales Act 2006".
(2018-09-30). "Welsh AMs worried about 'looking like muppets'". BBC News.
(2017-06-13). "Assembly set to be renamed Welsh Parliament". BBC News.
(2018-11-12). "Assembly set to be renamed Senedd, instead of Welsh Parliament". BBC News.
(2020-05-05). "Why are Welsh Assembly Members changing their name?". BBC News.
"People {{!}} The Welsh Conservative Party".
"Members of the Welsh Parliament".
(2024-03-28). "Senedd: Welsh Parliament politicians get 3% pay rise". BBC News.

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This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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