National Assembly for Wales

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Devolved parliamentary body for Wales, comprising 60 members and based in Cardiff. The Assembly was created by the July 1998 Government of Wales Act, which was passed following the Welsh electorate's narrow approval of government proposals in an 18 September 1997 referendum on devolution. Its temporary base is the Cardiff University Council Chamber and Crickhowell House on Cardiff Bay. A new building, designed by the architect Richard Rogers, is to be built at Cardiff Bay to house the assembly from 2001.

The assembly has taken over virtually all of the functions of the Secretary of State for Wales, spending the Welsh Office's £7 billion budget. Foreign affairs, defence, taxation, social security, broadcasting, and overall economic policy remain with the government in London. The assembly may pass secondary legislation, but, unlike the Scottish Parliament, does not have primary law-making powers, even in areas such as the Welsh language. It implements Westminster legislation and oversees quangos (organizations appointed and funded by central government), making them more accountable. The English and Welsh languages are treated equally in the assembly's work.

Its members are elected for four-year terms through a semi-proportional electoral system; 40 are returned on a first-past-the-post basis from single-member constituencies, comprising Wales' existing Westminster constituencies, and an additional 20 members are selected on a proportional basis from party lists based on Wales' five European Parliament constituencies. The assembly's first elections were held on 6 May 1999. A first secretary (Prif Ysgrifennydd y Cynulliad) is elected by majority vote from within the assembly, to act as its leader and to appoint a cabinet comprising assembly secretaries.

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