Guide to the Welsh Assembly

Introductory Video

On 18 September 1997, the people of Wales voted in a referendum on devolution.

They may have voted yes, but it was by the thinnest of margins - 50.3% to 49.7%. Nevertheless, a new dawn had broken, as the then-Welsh Secretary Ron Davies claimed.

Although wheels were set in motion for a National Assembly for Wales, those in favour had a huge task to convince those who had voted against it - and those who hadn't voted at all - that it would benefit the country.

With that challenge in mind, Mr Davies famously said that "devolution is a process, not an event."

Laws from scratch

That proved to be the case. The Government of Wales Act 1998 established the Assembly but it wasn't until a second act in 2006 that it gained the ability to make its own laws from scratch rather than adapting legislation created in Westminster.

However, the Assembly still had to ask MPs for permission to legislate in some areas, which led to bickering between Cardiff Bay and Westminster over the finer details of certain requests for the power to legislate.

Two areas that saw a tug-of-war along the M4 were the Welsh language and affordable housing.

The beginning of the fourth Assembly in May 2011 heralded a new legislative system in Wales.

In a referendum on 3 March 2011, voters in Wales decided that the Assembly have the power to pass laws on devolved issues without first having to ask Westminster.

The Assembly prides itself on avoiding the "yah-boo" politics of Westminster.

And although chamber sessions do get heated from time to time, the shouting and jeering associated with the House of Commons is kept to a minimum.

The Senedd , sited in the area formally known as Tiger Bay, plays home to the 60 AMs.

There are 60 Assembly Members, made up of 40 constituent AMs and 20 regional AMsPlenary sessions are held twice a week on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoonsSince the 2011 Assembly election, Labour has half the available seatsThe Senedd houses the debating chamber and committee rooms
There are 12 subject committees, on issues such as Enterprise and Learning, and SustainabilityThe Senedd was officially opened by the Queen on St David's Day in 2006There are five legislative committees that scrutinise new BillsThe Senedd building was designed by the architect Lord Richard Rogers

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Guide to N.Ireland Assembly

Join BBC Northern Ireland political editor Mark Devenport at Stormont

If at first you don't succeed...try, try, try again.

Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement the folks on the Stormont hill have made several attempts to keep devolution on the political tracks.

Trains have always been used as an analogy for Northern Ireland's long drawn-out political process. In 1997, Tony Blair warned Sinn Fein that the "settlement train" was leaving and would not wait.

Former DUP leader Ian Paisley, now Lord Bannside, told his party members in 2005 that the "democracy train" was leaving, with or without them.

There have been delays, faulty signalling and many long halts leading to the restoration of devolution in May 2007.

The Assembly was suspended in February 2000 over the IRA's failure to decommission its weapons, and the issue of arms led to further suspensions of devolution up until October 2002, when allegations of an IRA spy-ring at Stormont again led to direct rule being imposed for a further four years.

D'Hondt's rules

Nascent power-sharing has been criticised for being heavy on debate and light on law-making, even by some of those Assembly members sitting on the chamber's blue benches.

The Assembly can legislate on all matters transferred to it from Westminster, which includes everything except defence, foreign policy, and raising taxes.

The executive, in effect the government of Northern Ireland, is made up of Assembly members using a mechanism created by a 19th Century Belgian lawyer, Victor D'Hondt for sharing out ministries between parties.

Like a box of Belgian chocolates, the largest parties get to choose the tastiest portfolios.

The executive is headed by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, which, incumbents of the deputy first minister's post have been keen to point out, is a joint office, with both ministers receiving equal standing and equal powers.

Both ministers have also been keen to be questioned less by the Assembly - every four weeks instead of fortnightly - but that move was derailed.

The devolution process has been a bumpy ride - from Tony Blair's "hand of history", to the refusal of DUP politicians to shake hands with their Sinn Fein partners in government.

Former SDLP Deputy Leader Seamus Mallon once famously described the Good Friday Agreement's power-sharing deal as the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement for slow learners.

BBC Democracy Live will allow you to decide if the Assembly train is whizzing by, or the slow coaches are being delayed by the wrong type of political leaves on the line.

The Assembly is Northern Ireland's Parliamentary debating chamberThere are 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly, known as MLAsAssembly proceedings are chaired by a Speaker elected on a cross-community basisThe present Assembly was established under the 1998 Good Friday AgreementA gold-plated chandelier which originally hung in Windsor Castle hangs inside Stormont
The Assembly Chamber was badly damaged by a fire in 1995The building was blacked out during World War II to avoid German air strikesThe Great Hall was used for the funeral service of footballer George BestThe executive meets in Stormont Castle within the Stormont estateThe Assembly also has a Senate chamber which is mostly used by committees

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