What does Wales' first minister actually do?
- Published
Vaughan Gething is expected to become first minister next week
The results have been declared and Vaughan Gething is the new Welsh Labour leader.
Next week, in the Senedd, Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford will step down and members of the Welsh Parliament are expected to nominate Mr Gething, as the new leader of the largest party in Cardiff Bay, as Mr Drakeford's replacement.
But what does Wales' first minister actually do?
Are they a sort of Welsh prime minister?
The first minister in Wales, and similarly in Scotland, (Northern Ireland is slightly different due to the power sharing arrangements) is the equivalent in the Welsh government of the prime minister in the UK government.
Indeed, the Welsh word for the head of the Welsh government is "prif weinidog", which literally translates to prime minister.
The first minister is the face of the Welsh government, the person seen as representing the character, the spirit of that administration.
During the pandemic this was perhaps the case with Mark Drakeford to a far greater extent than we had previously seen over the 25 years since the Welsh assembly, now Senedd Cymru - Welsh Parliament was created, as he fronted televised addresses to the nation to hundreds of thousands of viewers.
What will the new first minister do first?
Once Mr Gething is confirmed as first minister by the King, one of his first jobs will be to appoint his new cabinet.
Those appointments, again, require the approval of King Charles, though we can safely say His Majesty is unlikely to provoke a constitutional crisis by refusing any of those nominations.
The questions as to who from Mr Drakeford's old cabinet is in, or out, or moved for that matter, will be decided by the new first minister, apart from any ministers who might have decided now is the time to move to the back benches and end their time in government of their own accord.
The Welsh government cabinet meets regularly to consider the issues of the day and is chaired by the first minister, in a similar way to how prime ministers chair their cabinets in Downing Street.
What are the first minister's main responsibilities?
Mark Drakeford led televised news conferences during the pandemic to large audiences
The first minister is ultimately responsible for everything the Welsh government does, working with ministers and civil servants to put the policies of that administration into practice across a range of areas such as health, education, local government and agriculture.
This includes deciding which new laws are put through the Senedd, with ministers going through something of a bidding process to get legislation that they want for their area of responsibility onto the statute book as a priority.
With the new first minister taking over just two years away from the next Senedd election, due in 2026, and the long time it takes for proposed laws to clear the various stages, major legislative change from what is already in train is not expected.
Not everything requires new laws, of course, and the first minister, supported by his cabinet, discuss and decide the way public services should be run, how much should be spent on them and so on.
Monitoring how ministers are performing - as well as whether they should be promoted, demoted, left where they are or dismissing - is a matter for the first minister.
What if a minister does something wrong?
Should there be the suggestion that a minister might have done something they should not have done, it is the first minister who decides whether or not they have broken the Ministerial Code, that sets out the standards members of the government are expected to meet.
The first minister might appoint a civil servant to investigate and write a report on what has occurred to help reach a conclusion on whether the code has been breached.
This is a power criticised by opposition politicians, who say the first minster is "both judge and jury" on matters that might relate to the Ministerial Code.
What else does the first minister do?
Other important functions include handling relations with the other governments in the United Kingdom, the UK government, Scottish government and Northern Ireland Executive, and appointments to public bodies.
Perhaps the most visible regular duty for first ministers is First Minister's Questions in Cardiff Bay on Tuesday afternoons, when Senedd members quiz the head of the Welsh government, the devolved parliament's equivalent of Westminster's Prime Ministers Questions.
Since 2021, the first minister is also scrutinised three times a year by a committee made up of the chairs of the various Senedd committees, sometimes alongside Plaid Cymru's leader.
This is because the Labour Welsh government and Plaid have a co-operation agreement on a range of policies, including childcare, free school meals and expanding the Senedd.
This agreement, another matter the first minister is responsible for, was struck in 2021 and is due to end towards the end of this year.
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