199.Under the 2006 Act, the powers and functions of the Assembly, including the power to make subordinate legislation, were transferred to the Welsh Ministers, who became accountable to the Assembly.
200.The 2006 Act created a system for granting the Assembly the ability to pass Assembly Measures in 20 defined areas through Legislative Competence Orders, which required the consent of both Houses of Parliament and the Secretary of State for Wales.
201.It also granted the Assembly the power to make Acts, subject to a referendum. This referendum was held in 2011 and, following the affirmative referendum result, the Assembly assumed new powers to pass primary legislation (Acts of the National Assembly for Wales) without recourse to Parliament in specified areas.
202.The Wales Act 2014 transferred further powers to the National Assembly for Wales, and the subsequent Wales Act 2017 made further changes to the 2006 Act and the Wales Act 2014, notably moving from a “conferred” to a “reserved” model of devolution in Wales. On 6 May 2020 the National Assembly for Wales became “Senedd Cymru” or “the Welsh Parliament” following changes introduced by section 2 of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020.
203.Over and above the amendments to the 2006 Act that have already been set out in these Explanatory Notes, Part 16 of this Schedule to the Act makes changes to Schedule 11 to the 2006 Act. Schedule 11 contains transitional provisions to cover the transfer in May 2007, when the first Assembly election took place after the 2006 Act, from the legal and governmental regime created by the 1998 Act to the regime set out in the 2006 Act. It sets out detailed provisions dealing with the arrangements necessary to ensure an effective transition. As the transition has happened a number of those provisions are no longer required, and the Act will remove these from the statute book.
204.The amendments to Schedule 11 are to:
205.The Act also repeals paragraph 10 of Schedule 3 to the National Health Service (Consequential Provisions) Act 2006 because it applied only during the initial period, within the meaning of the 2006 Act, which ended on 25 May 2007. The provision is spent as the initial period has ended.
206.In consequence of the amendments made to Table 2 in paragraph 35 of Schedule 11, the Act also repeals paragraph (c) of paragraph 22 of the Schedule to Learning and Skills (Wales) Measure 2009.
Commentary on Sections Part 3 – Repeals of Welsh Legislation Part 17 – Transitional provision relating to the Government of Wales Act 2006