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What can you vote for?

There are different things that influence which elections you’re allowed to vote in. Generally, these are your age, your nationality and where you live. And rules are different in different parts of the UK.

Welcome to Your Vote - Your Vote in Wales

Find out what you can vote for

Who does what?

The Senedd 

You can vote in Senedd elections when you’re 16.

How are you finding your school or college course? What’s your local hospital like? Is it easy to get where you want to go by train? 

The Senedd (Welsh Parliament), makes decisions about these issues. 

The Senedd passes laws, and sets taxes, and makes decisions about a range of issues that affect the people of Wales.
 

The Senedd's responsibilities

Responsibilities held by the Senedd are called ‘devolved matters.’ They include: 

  • education, training and universities 
  • housing, including tackling homelessness 
  • protecting the environment and conserving wildlife and natural habitats
  • the NHS  
  • setting some taxes
  • promoting the culture and heritage of Wales, including the Welsh language
  • developing transport 
  • promoting agricultural schemes and rural development 
  • funding for local councils 

Who represents you in the Senedd?

The people who represent you in the Senedd are called Members of the Senedd, or MSs for short. 

You elect your MSs every five years. There are 60 elected MSs and every person in Wales is represented by five of them. 

Each MS looks after a particular geographic area in Wales. One of your MSs represents your Senedd constituency and the other four represent a much bigger area called a region. 

You can contact any of the MSs who represent you to ask questions about issues that are important to you. You can speak over the phone, by email, or face to face when they hold an open meeting in your area, known as a surgery.

You can find their contact details on the Senedd’s website.

If you want to see a debate in action, you can book a seat by visiting the Senedd’s website. Alternatively, you can watch proceedings live, or catch up later.

MSs' responsibilities

Your MS might:

  • debate and pass laws which affect Wales
  • make decisions about taxes
  • ask questions and look closely at Welsh Government policies to hold them to account 
  • respond to a problem in your area by asking the responsible politician, known as a minister, an official question 
  • hold a regular open meeting with people in their area to discuss the problems in your area 
  • sit on Senedd committees to look at issues in more detail 
  • influence how schools and hospitals are run in Wales

Local councils

You can vote in local council elections when you’re 18.

How often is your rubbish collected? What are the roads in your area like? Do you like your local sports facilities? 

Your local council makes decisions about all of these issues and many more that affect you on a daily basis. It deals with matters that directly impact your specific local area and is responsible for local services. 

You might also hear local councils be called local government or local authorities. 

A small number of councillors form a cabinet or executive. This is the top decision-making group of the council but all decisions they make are guided by broad policies or plans that have been agreed by the council as a whole. 

If you want to make a complaint or bring up an issue with your elected representative, you need to know which council is responsible for your area. Find you local council.

Local councils' responsibilities

Your local council is responsible for:

  • education services
  • youth and leisure facilities
  • planning decisions, for example, if your neighbour wanted to build an extension
  • council housing
  • managing parks and other public places
  • social services such as foster care, help for people with disabilities, or care for the elderly
  • local roads and footpaths
  • rubbish and recycling
  • libraries
  • checking up on and regulating local businesses
  • registering voters and running elections

Who represents you in your local council?

The people elected to represent you in your local council are called local councillors. You and others in your area elect them for a four year period. 

The geographic area covered by your local council is divided into smaller areas called wards. Your ward could be represented by up to four local councillors. You may also have community councillors who represent you. 

Your local councillor might: 

  • be involved in working out how much to spend on local services
  • develop future plans for your area
  • help you to deal with any concern with local services the council provides
  • discuss and set council tax

Many councillors work full or part-time in other jobs on top of their work as a councillor. 

You can contact your local councillor to ask them questions about what’s happening in your area, or express a concern you may have. You can usually find their contact details on your council’s website.

You could also attend a council meeting in the public gallery at your local town or city hall and watch how decisions are made. So you know what to expect, it might be useful to ask your local councillor to explain what happens in a council meeting before you go.

UK Parliament

When you turn 18, you’re able to vote in UK Parliament elections.

The UK Parliament makes some decisions that affect Wales. These are called ‘reserved matters’ and include things like defence, foreign affairs, tax and anything to do with the monarchy.

It is made up of two chambers – the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The public vote for the people who sit in the House of Commons. The UK Parliament makes decisions about some aspects of how the UK is run and makes laws that affect our lives.

UK Parliament's responsibilities

Its roles include:

  • providing the funds to do UK Government work by voting for tax, 
  • protecting the public and the rights of individuals
  • looking closely at UK Government policy and actions - this is known as scrutinising
  • debating the major issues of the day 

Who represents you in the UK Parliament? 

The person who represents you in the House of Commons is called a Member of Parliament, or MP for short. 

Every person in the UK is represented by one MP who covers a large area, called a constituency. The UK is currently divided into 650 constituencies, and Wales is represented by 40 MPs. You elect your MP every five years.

Your MP splits their time between work at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster in London and local work in your area. 

As with MSs, you can contact your MP to ask them questions. You can find out how to get in touch by visiting the UK Parliament’s website.

You can also watch debates in UK Parliament, either from the public gallery or via a live stream on Parliament Live TV.
 

MPs' responsibilities

Your MP might: 

  • support a campaign to change the law 
  • help address the issues of people living in your area by holding regular open meetings 
  • help make a law by speaking in a debate in the House of Commons or sitting on a committee in the UK Parliament 
  • ask an official question in the House of Commons 
  • find out what the people in your area think about a particular issue 
     

Remember to register to vote

If you’re not registered, you can’t vote. It’s as simple as that.

In Wales, you can register to vote when you’re 15, or in some cases 14. But you can only start to vote in Senedd elections when you turn 16.

Luckily, you don’t need to register before every election. 

You need to register if:

  • you’ve never registered to vote before 
  • you’ve just become old enough to register 

You need to register to vote again if:

  • you’ve moved house recently 
  • you’ve changed your name for any reason

You’ll stay registered to vote as long as you live at that address and don’t change your name. When you become eligible to vote in different elections, your record will be updated automatically.

Registering to vote takes just five minutes if you do it online. If you’re 16 or older, all you’ll need is your National Insurance number. If you’re under 16, you won’t be asked to supply a National Insurance number.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll appear on the electoral register. This is a list of everyone in your area who is registered to vote. These lists are managed by your local elections team.

If you have any questions about the electoral register, you should contact them. They’ll be happy to help. You can find their contact details by visiting electoralcommission.org.uk, searching for ‘your election information’ and entering your postcode. 

Living at two addresses

Some people split their time equally between two addresses. For example, you might be a student living away from home, or split your time between two parents’ homes. If this is you, you may be able to register to vote at two addresses, as long as your addresses are in different council areas. 

This doesn’t mean you get two votes though. You must only vote at one address in Senedd elections and UK Parliament elections but you can choose which area to vote in. It’s against the law to vote more than once in the same election.

In local council elections, you’ll be able vote at both addresses as long as you’re voting in different council areas.

Armed forces

If you’re 14 to17 and one of your parents is in the armed forces, you will be able to register to vote as a service voter. 

This means that if your family is posted to a different country, or if you move around a lot, you’ll still be able to vote in elections in Wales. You’ll just need to remember to renew this every year.

Living abroad

If you’re thinking about living in another country outside of the UK one day, even for a little while, you’ll still be able to vote in UK Parliamentary elections. 

As long as you’ve been registered to vote in the UK, and have been eligible to vote in general elections in the last 15 years, you’ll be allowed to continue voting for your MP. 

If you leave the UK before you are old enough to vote, you’ll still be able to register to vote if one of your parents has been registered to vote in UK general elections in the last 15 years. 
 

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