Wales recall law sets new Senedd rules in 2026

If you are meeting this law for the first time, start with the name. The Senedd Cymru (Member Accountability and Elections) Act 2026, published on legislation.gov.uk after receiving Royal Assent on 27 April 2026, is Wales's new law on recall, standards and election conduct. In plain English, it creates a way for voters to decide whether a sitting Member of the Senedd should stay in office, while also changing how misconduct is investigated. The original wording is dense because legislation has to cover every awkward scenario it can think of. But the public question is much simpler: when an elected representative is accused of serious wrongdoing, who decides what happens next, and by what rules?

The first big change is the creation of a recall poll. That is a vote held in one Senedd constituency on whether a named Member of the Senedd should be removed or retained as a member of Senedd Cymru. If you are used to hearing about recall as a general idea, pause here: this Act makes it a formal, constituency-wide poll with a clear legal result. **What this means:** this is not just a warning shot. If the outcome is removal, the seat becomes vacant. If the outcome is retention, the member stays. The Act also says that other routes by which a seat can become vacant still exist, so recall sits alongside the rest of Welsh constitutional law rather than replacing it.

A member only faces recall if one of two trigger events happens. Trigger event A is a criminal one: after becoming a Member of the Senedd, the person is convicted anywhere in the UK of an offence and sentenced or ordered to be imprisoned or detained. A suspended sentence counts. Being remanded in custody does not. Detention under mental health legislation on its own does not count unless there is also a sentence or order of the kind set out in the Act. There is a technical detail here that matters. The offence itself could have been committed before the person became an MS, or even before the recall section comes into force, but the conviction must happen on or after the section starts. The second route, trigger event B, is a standards route: the Standards of Conduct Committee recommends recall and the Senedd then resolves to submit the member to a recall poll.

That standards route is not meant to be improvised. The Act says the Standards of Conduct Committee cannot recommend recall unless recall guidance has first been drafted, consulted on publicly and approved by the Senedd. The committee must consider that guidance before recommending a poll, and the guidance can include examples of the kinds of behaviour that could justify recall. **What this means:** the Senedd is trying to stop recall from becoming a vague or purely political punishment. Before a standards case can reach the public, there has to be an agreed framework for what counts as serious enough conduct.

Once the Presiding Officer becomes aware that a trigger event has happened, the Presiding Officer must fix a date for the recall poll and notify the constituency returning officer as soon as reasonably practicable. The poll date has to fall within three months of that notice. But the law blocks a recall poll if it would land within the final six months before the next ordinary Senedd election, after that election day, while the member is already subject to another recall poll, or after the seat has already become vacant. The process can also stop early. It ends if an extraordinary general election is proposed, if the seat is vacated anyway, or, in a trigger event A case, if the conviction, sentence or order is overturned on appeal. For convictions in England and Wales, the court that imposed the sentence must notify the Presiding Officer, and appeal courts must notify the Presiding Officer if the relevant decision is overturned.

Only voters in the member's own Senedd constituency get a say. The Act says the people entitled to vote are those who would be allowed to vote in a Senedd general election and who are registered in the local government electoral register at an address within that constituency on polling day. The recall poll must be conducted by ballot, and the question on the paper must appear in both Welsh and English. The wording is simple and direct: should the named member be removed or retained as a member of Senedd Cymru, the Welsh Parliament? A majority for removal removes the member. A majority for retention keeps the member in post. An exact tie also means the member is retained. If removal is declared, the seat becomes vacant at that point, subject to any later rules for challenging the outcome.

The Act does more than create recall. It also changes the Senedd's standards machinery. The Government of Wales Act 2006 is amended so the Senedd must have a Standards of Conduct Committee, and that committee must include lay members, meaning people who are not Members of the Senedd. In proceedings about an MS's conduct, standing orders must give those lay members the same participation and voting rights as other committee members, although lay members can never outnumber Senedd members overall. This is one of the most important democracy points in the whole Act. Politicians are still involved, but they are no longer the only voices in the room when conduct issues are being judged. Lay members must be appointed by Senedd resolution after fair and open competition, for fixed terms of up to six years and no more than two terms. The law even allows appeal or review sub-committees made entirely of lay members, and if that kind of sub-committee exists, at least one lay appointee must be legally qualified. Until 7 November 2027, though, some of the new lay-member duties are optional rather than mandatory while the system beds in.

The Senedd Commissioner for Standards also gets stronger powers. Under amendments to the 2009 Measure, the Commissioner can open an investigation on the Commissioner's own initiative where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a breach and any standing-order conditions are met. The Commissioner must report the outcome to the Senedd unless the case is discontinued under rules made for that purpose, and even then the member must be told why. The Act also tightens who can be appointed as Commissioner, excluding a wider range of current or former politicians, some councillors, police and crime commissioners, and people working for Senedd members or registered political parties. One limit is important: the Commissioner may report on the facts, but may not recommend what sanction, if any, should be imposed. The Act also lets the Commissioner publish limited information about an investigation, including the fact that it exists, the identity of the member under investigation and a general description of the issue. But there are safeguards. The Commissioner must not identify the complainant, publish evidence or suggest whether the complaint is well founded. The Commissioner can require documents, in-person evidence, live video or audio evidence, and written evidence verified by a statement of truth, and refusing without reasonable excuse can amount to a criminal offence.

Another part of the Act reaches into elections more widely. It amends section 13 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 so the Welsh Ministers must make rules prohibiting false or misleading statements of fact before or during an election where the purpose is to affect whether a candidate is returned. The order can define what counts as a statement of fact, who is covered, what period the rule applies to and whether the ban applies to knowingly or recklessly false claims. For readers interested in media literacy, that matters a great deal. The law is not simply saying people should be fairer in campaigns. It is telling ministers to build a formal rule against certain false or misleading factual claims in Welsh elections. The Act also says Welsh Ministers must consult the Electoral Commission before making recall regulations, and the Commission will have to report after a recall poll has been held.

Two final details help you read the law as a working system rather than a one-off headline. First, the Presiding Officer must table a motion for an inquiry into whether the code of conduct for Members of the Senedd should also apply to behaviour during the period when someone is a candidate at a Senedd election. That is the Act acknowledging that questions about standards do not always begin on the day a person is elected. Secondly, commencement is staggered. Part 2, Part 2 of the Schedule and the final provisions came into force on 28 April 2026, the day after Royal Assent. Part 3 came into force two months later. The remaining provisions, including the recall system, come into force on dates to be appointed by the Welsh Ministers. **What this means:** Wales has now set out a clearer rulebook for accountability, but some of the most visible changes still depend on commencement orders, standing orders and follow-up regulations.