11.3 Primary Legislation in England and in Wales

Most problems a solicitor meets are governed by statute before they are governed by case law. FLK1 therefore expects you to read an Act as a working instrument: who made it, what its parts are called, where it runs geographically, and when it comes into force. This OpenExamPrep section is independent teaching of primary legislation for England and for Wales. Primary legislation means an Act of a legislature. Secondary (delegated) legislation — statutory instruments, Welsh Ministers' regulations — is a different source, made under an enabling Act, and is not the focus here.

Two legislatures matter:

• the UK Parliament at Westminster, which can enact for the whole United Kingdom or for a part of it, including England, Wales, or England and Wales;
• Senedd Cymru (the Welsh Parliament), which can enact Acts of Senedd Cymru on matters within legislative competence.

Parliamentary sovereignty still describes Westminster: it can make or unmake any law and cannot bind its successors. It can legally legislate for Wales even on devolved subjects. Political practice uses legislative consent motions in the Senedd when Westminster proposes to legislate on devolved Welsh matters. That convention is politically important. It is not a legal disablement of Parliament. The Senedd, by contrast, is legally limited by competence rules in the Government of Wales Act 2006 as amended, especially by the Wales Act 2017 reserved-powers model that took effect on 1 April 2018.

Structure of an Act of Parliament

Open a modern public general Act on legislation.gov.uk and name the parts. FLK1 expects the vocabulary.

Public general Acts change the general law. Local and personal (private) Acts are limited to a place, project or person. SQE problems almost always concern public general Acts, but a candidate should still recognise a local Act if a fact pattern involves, for example, a harbour or a specific university.

Extent is not the same as application

This distinction is a favourite trap.

• Extent answers: in which legal systems is this Act law? A typical clause reads 'This Act extends to England and Wales only' or 'This Act extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland'.
• Application answers: where, within that extent, do particular provisions operate? A Part may extend to England and Wales yet apply to England only, because the Welsh equivalent now sits in an Act of Senedd Cymru.

Always read both clauses. Never infer geography from the short title alone. An Act with 'Wales' in the short title may still contain UK-wide machinery. An Act with no geographical word in the short title may be England-only in substance.

Commencement

Royal Assent and coming into force are different events. Section 4 of the Interpretation Act 1978 provides that, if an Act is silent, it comes into force at the beginning of the day on which it receives Royal Assent. Modern Acts rarely stay silent. They stagger commencement, often by commencement order. An uncommenced section is not in force. Advising a client on the basis of a section that has not been commenced is a professional error. Check the latest commencement information, not only the print of the Act as passed.

A short worked reading

Suppose a Westminster Act's extent clause says it extends to England and Wales, section 1 defines 'dwelling', sections 2 to 10 create occupation rights, section 11 says 'This Part applies to England only', Schedule 1 lists types of excluded occupancy, and section 40 says sections 2 to 10 come into force on a day the Secretary of State appoints. For a house in Bristol you still need a commencement order. For a house in Swansea you need to ask whether a Senedd Act occupies the field (in housing, often yes: the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 uses occupation contracts, not the English assured shorthold regime). The same county court in Wales will apply the Welsh statute; the same county court in England will apply the Westminster Part that applies to England.

Structure of an Act of Senedd Cymru

Devolution in Wales has a short statutory history that candidates should not muddle:

• Government of Wales Act 1998 created the National Assembly for Wales with secondary powers.
• Government of Wales Act 2006 created a legislature that could pass Measures, then (after the 2011 referendum) Acts of the Assembly.
• Wales Act 2017 moved Wales to a reserved-powers model (from 1 April 2018): the Senedd may legislate on any matter that is not reserved, subject to other competence limits (Convention rights, protected enactments, and related rules).
• Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020 renamed the legislature Senedd Cymru / Welsh Parliament. Its primary legislation is now cited as an Act of Senedd Cymru.

Equal standing of the two language texts. Section 156 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 requires the Welsh and English texts of Senedd primary legislation (and of bilingual Welsh subordinate legislation) to be treated as of equal standing. The Welsh text is not a translation for courtesy. It is the law, together with the English text. The Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 supplies the interpretation code for Welsh legislation and supports the accessibility of Welsh law. Interpretation of those bilingual texts is taught in section 11.4.

Reserved powers and why Wales is not a separate jurisdiction

Schedule 7A to the Government of Wales Act 2006 lists reserved matters. As at the September 2026 specification, justice, the courts, the legal profession, most criminal law, and policing remain largely reserved to Westminster. That reservation is a principal legal reason Wales is not a separate legal jurisdiction:

• one judiciary of England and Wales, headed by the Lord Chief Justice;
• one set of Senior Courts;
• one solicitors' profession (solicitors of England and Wales);
• one doctrine of precedent;
• one body of reserved statute, including most of the criminal calendar.

What can differ is the content of devolved law: health organisation (NHS Wales), education and the curriculum, local government, much housing, environment, the Welsh language, and other non-reserved fields. A housing solicitor in Swansea and a housing solicitor in Bristol may give different correct answers on the same facts because the statute book differs, not because they appear in different courts of different jurisdictions.

Application of Westminster and Senedd legislation to England and to Wales

Worked contrast. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 redesigned residential occupation in Wales around occupation contracts. England continues to use the Housing Act 1988 assured-tenancy scheme for most private renting. Both statutes are applied by the county court and, where relevant, the High Court. There is no Welsh housing court sitting outside the courts of England and Wales.

Official status of the Welsh language in Wales

The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gives official status to the Welsh language in Wales and underpins enforceable Welsh language standards on listed bodies. Combined with the Welsh Language Act 1993 (including the right to speak Welsh in legal proceedings in Wales, s.22) and with bilingual Senedd legislation, the practical consequences for a solicitor are:

• in Wales, public bodies and many others must meet standards on correspondence, services and policy;
• Senedd Acts are authentic in both languages;
• a party or witness in proceedings sitting in Wales may use Welsh;
• none of this makes Welsh an official language of England, and none of it creates a separate Welsh jurisdiction.

FLK1 traps for this section

• Treating Wales as a separate legal jurisdiction because it has a legislature.
• Ignoring an England-only application clause in a Westminster Act that 'extends to England and Wales'.
• Confusing Royal Assent with commencement.
• Treating the Welsh text of a Senedd Act as unofficial.
• Assuming the Senedd can redesign the Senior Courts or the solicitors' profession (those remain reserved).
• Assuming Westminster has legally lost the power to legislate for Wales.