Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025: integrated impact assessment [HTML]

Impact assessment, Document

Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025: integrated impact assessment

An assessment on the impact of the Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025.

First published: 8 May 2025

Last updated: 8 May 2025

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Section 1: what action is the �ʶ��considering and why?

The National Assembly for Wales (Representation of the People) Order 2007 (“the Conduct Order”) sets out the detailed rules for the conduct of elections to the Senedd Cymru. It sets out the way in which the election and the election campaign are conducted and includes provisions for legal challenge to an election.

The Conduct Order is reviewed, and has generally been amended, before each Senedd election to reflect any relevant policy or legislative changes that have taken place since the previous election. The amending orders have also made any relevant technical and/or minor updates such as amendments to certain limits to candidates’ expenditure.

Previous Orders and amendments have been made by the Secretary of State for Wales. Following the enactment of the Wales Act 2017 the power to make provision for the conduct of Senedd elections has largely transferred to the �ʶ�� Ministers.

The �ʶ��is committed to making the law in Wales accessible and easy to navigate. The current Conduct Order was amended in 2010, 2013 and twice in 2016. The most recent amendment was in 2021. Due to the number of amendments, the Conduct Order is a piece of legislation that is increasingly complex and difficult to access. As a result, it is considered that the current Conduct Order is no longer fit for purpose.

Additionally, the �ʶ�� Ministers have previously committed to review the Conduct Order (and related amendment orders) with a view to consolidate and remake it, bilingually, in time for the 2026 election.

Many of the provisions of the current 2007 Order have been restated in the Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025 (“the Order”). The language has been updated where appropriate to improve clarity and accessibility of the legislation and to ensure that the language of the Order is gender neutral.

There have been many reforms which the Order needs to take account of. The draft Order therefore reflects the following:

Substantive changes brought about by the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024, including changes to the number of constituencies and the number of seats for each constituency, and abolition of the five electoral regions and other related changes.
The strengthening and modernisation of the undue influence offence.
Provisions to improve the accessibility of Senedd elections for disabled people.
Changes to notional expenditure.
Changes made by the UK Government in relation to the issue and receipt of postal ballot papers which means it is no longer possible to combine this process when the polls of a Senedd election are combined with a UK Government election.

Consultation on the draft Order took place with the Electoral Commission in Autumn 2024, and formal consultation was held between 25 November 2024 and 17 February 2025.

Formal consultation with stakeholders on the bilingual draft Order (English and �ʶ��) sought the views of practitioners and stakeholders with an interest in and knowledge of electoral law.

As part of the consultation process, 5 engagement events were held; �ʶ�� speakers attended these events. Participants included Returning Officers, electoral service managers, the Electoral Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Democracy and Boundary Commission and political parties. These intended to seek views from stakeholders and test the practical application of the proposals contained with the consultation. Informal consultation was also undertaken including as part of regular meetings with stakeholders in the development of the Order.

Furthermore, as agreed by the Senedd, the Reform Bill Committee considered the draft Order and published a report on 27 February 2025. The report made a number of recommendations related to a number of areas within the draft Order. The �ʶ��have accepted, or accepted in principle, all 5 recommendations.

Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act

There is clear alignment between the draft Order and the 5 ways of working as set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 (“the Future Generations Act”). The Five Ways of Working have been considered throughout the development of this proposal and are discussed below.

Ways of working: long term

The draft Order is another step in our long-term ambition for electoral reform building on work delivered in the last Senedd term. The draft Order seeks to restate and consolidate previous amendments to make the legislation more accessible and straight forward.

Other examples of our longer-term ambitions include:

Consolidating electoral law (including restating the franchise) in one bilingual act.
Updating EU citizens’ franchise to reflect their status post EU exit.
Enfranchising some prisoners in Wales.
Flexibility to enable people to vote at different times and locations.
Electronic voting.

Ways of working: prevention

By consolidating the draft Order and therefore strengthening the administration of elections, this will help ensure the resilience of their delivery in the future.

Ways of working: integration

The draft Order and the wider reform package will help to reduce the democratic deficit and will make improvements to Senedd elections.

Ways of working: collaboration

We have worked closely across Government and with the electoral community including local authorities, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Electoral Commission, other UK governments and third sector organisations to develop our proposals for electoral reform.

Ways of working: involvement

The �ʶ��has discussed and consulted on a range of options for delivering electoral reform since �ʶ�� elections were devolved to Wales through the Wales Act 2017.

We will continue to work with stakeholders throughout the implementation of the draft Order.

Proposal impact

The draft Order supports electoral reform and is part of a wider package of measures that aims to improve the democracy of Wales, and this is an overall positive impact. The Order is also in line with the principles of electoral reform, outlined below, which are used to benchmark the agenda of electoral reform and �ʶ�� Government’s approach to supporting democratic engagement and participation.

Principles of electoral reform:

Equity: every person that wishes to participate in democracy must be enabled to do so, and to do so in a safe and respectful environment, so that our institutions are diverse and representative of the people they serve.
Accessibility: changes to electoral systems and electoral law should be based on the principle of making voting and participation in democracy as accessible and convenient as possible, building capacity to allow that to happen and encouraging creativity at every level of democracy.
Participation: we want as many people as possible to exercise their democratic right to vote. It is the role of everyone involved in electoral administration to maximise the number of people turning out at elections.
Improving citizen experience: citizens should be provided with the tools to shape their communities and country through engagement, representation and participation.
Simplicity: the administrative electoral system and electoral law in Wales must be modernised to make registering to vote, voting and participating more straightforward for citizens.
Integrity: integrity and transparency must underpin all electoral reforms in Wales. We must have a system that citizens trust and a sharing of information from legitimate sources.

The draft Order will have an overall positive impact on accessibility in Senedd Cymru elections, as it introduces a duty for Returning Officers to provide equipment as is considered reasonable for the purposes of making it easier for disabled people to vote. This will be supported by guidance which will be produced and consulted upon by the Electoral Commission. For UK elections, this included equipment which should be provided as a minimum. Including chairs, magnifiers, tactile voting devices, ramps, doorbells and disabled parking.

Further accessibility measures include changes to the language used throughout the draft Order, which is now gender neutral. The legislation has also been drafted in a way that improves clarity.

There will also be a positive impact on the �ʶ�� Language. The draft Order will be fully bilingual for the first time, including forms and related instructions. Where there are requirements to provide forms in �ʶ�� and English, provisions in the draft Order also ensure that the �ʶ�� comes before the English.

Proposal costs and savings

Estimated costs and savings are set out in in the draft Regulatory Impact Assessment (“RIA”) published alongside this integrated impact assessment (IIA).

Proposal mechanism

Secondary legislation is necessary to deliver the draft Order.

Section 8: conclusion

How have people most likely to be affected by the proposal been involved in developing it?

Engagement with the Electoral Commission took place throughout the development of the draft Order and informal consultation took place in Autumn 2024. The feedback received from the Electoral Commission has been crucial in developing the Order.

Furthermore, formal consultation on the draft Order was held between 25 November 2024 and 17 February 2025. Formal Consultation with stakeholders on the bilingual Order sought the views of practitioners and stakeholders with an interest in, and knowledge of, electoral law. The responses received have been helpful in further developing provisions within the Order.

During the development of the Order, specific issues were discussed with the Association of Electoral Administrators, and the Electoral Commission, and the UK Government as necessary.

One pre-consultation event was held with administrators and four consultation events were held involving Returning Officers, electoral administrators, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Electoral Commission, the Electoral Management Board, political parties and representatives of Organisations involved in encouraging engagement in �ʶ�� democracy.

Following feedback received from stakeholders during the consultation period on the postal vote statement correction procedure, the provision has not been included in the final Order. This will allow further engagement to be undertaken with electoral administrators to develop and refine the procedure and explore options for introduction at a later date.

Some policy proposals were also consulted upon as part of the Electoral Administration and Reform White Paper consultation from October 2022 to July 2023 and were scrutinised during the passage of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act.

What are the most significant impacts, positive and negative?

The most significant impact of the draft Order is to reflect changes to the electoral system for Senedd elections following the passing of the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 and changes to reflect electoral reforms introduced by the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act for Local government elections.

This will be the first time that this legislation has been made bilingually. Although the majority of the law has been restated, steps have been taken to reflect modern drafting techniques, to improve the accessibility of the provisions and to use gender neutral language. This is considered to be a positive impact.

The main changes in the draft Order have been brought about by legislative changes introduced by the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 and the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024. These changes include:

Provision to change the Senedd’s electoral system so that all Members are elected via a closed proportional list system, with votes translated into seats via the d’Hondt formula.
List design introduced by the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024, which includes the ability of independent candidates to stand. Registered political parties will determine the order of candidates on their list at nomination, and seats will be allocated to the parties on the basis of their list.
Provisions in the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024 that hold candidates and agents accountable for notional expenditure only where they direct it and allowing authorised persons to make payments otherwise than via an election agent.
The undue influence offence set out in article 83 has been updated to modernise and strengthen the language used to describe the offence. This reflects the changes brought about by the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act to the equivalent provision in the Representation of the People Act 1983 in relation to local government elections in Wales. It also reflects the approach taken for UK elections via the Elections Act 2022.
There are also amendments to the existing framework of election rules in Wales to reflect Elections Act 2022 provisions to improve the accessibility of elections for disabled people.

The draft Order delivers against the current Programme for Government, and forms part of a wider package of reforms that will strengthen democracy in Wales. It is also a positive step forward in making democracy accessible for all.

In light of the impacts identified, how will the proposal:

maximise contribution to our well-being objectives and the seven well-being goals
avoid, reduce or mitigate any negative impacts?

Well-being goals

A More Equal Wales, the provisions contained within the draft Order in relation to accessibility will help contribute to this well-being goal. As this is first time the Order has been remade in its entirety and the fact that the Order is being remade improving its accessibility after significant reforms to devolved elections in Wales, it is considered that this also contributes to this goal.

There are also amendments to the election rules to reflect Elections Act 2022 provisions to improve the accessibility of elections for disabled people.

Examples of the many formatting changes that have been taken forward for the purposes of improving the accessibility of the Order include:

The language of the Order has been modernised where possible.
Article 5 of the Order clearly distinguishes three types of voters in terms of how they can vote.
The interpretation article (Article 37) has been moved to the front of Part 3. This change is intended to inform the reader of the definitions before considering the substantive provisions in this Part, thereby improving accessibility.
Formatting changes to Article 71, Article 73, Schedule 1, Schedule 2 and Schedule 4.
Under Part 2 of Schedule 5, the duty on the Returning Officer to supply nomination forms etc. is now a standalone rule to further ensure the accessibility of the law.

In addition, some other provisions introduced by the UK government as part of the Elections Act 2022 have also been reflected in the draft Order to ensure consistency for administrators, campaigners and voters.

Where a policy change has been made, it has been done so with the intention of providing voters with more information, a more straight forward process to follow for candidates and administrators or to remove barriers around standing for, or participating in, elections.

A Wales of Vibrant Culture and Thriving �ʶ�� Language, the draft Order will be made fully bilingual for the first time, making a significant contribution to this well-being goal. Steps have also been taken to ensure that �ʶ�� is treated no less favourably than English within the format of the Order and some provisions.