We want to make planning law simpler, clearer and easier to understand.
Contents
Background
Planning law in Wales is currently hard to understand and navigate.
It is mainly based on laws passed by the UK Parliament that are decades old and has been significantly changed over time. These changes have made legislation fragmented, complicated and mostly only available in English.
Planning law in Wales is different from the law in England. This can make it harder for people to know which rules apply.
We asked the Law Commission to review Welsh planning law. Their report, Planning Law in Wales, found that the law needs urgent work to make it simpler and more consistent. We published an interim response and detailed response to their report.
We know it’s important for everyone using or working in the planning system to clearly understand the law that applies to them. Our Future of Welsh Law programme aims to bring planning law together and make it easier to access and use.
Purpose of the Bills
The Planning (Wales) Bill will consolidate planning legislation in Wales.
Consolidation will:
- bring together the main planning Acts and some subordinate legislation
- create a single bilingual Act
- modernise the structure and wording of the law to make it easier to understand and use.
Although the structure and wording of the law will change, its legal effect will remain unchanged. Consolidation is a technical process to improve clarity, not to change policy or reform planning law.
The Planning (Consequential Provisions) (Wales) Bill will help to implement the main Bill. It does this through:
- transitional and savings provisions
- making the necessary amendments and repeals to existing legislation
Publication of the draft Bill
We published a draft of the Planning (Wales) Bill in June 2025. This was to help Members of the Senedd, those involved in the planning system and others with an interest in planning law understand the proposed structure of the Bill before its formal introduction to the Senedd.
The draft version of the Bill has been removed following the Bill’s formal introduction into the Senedd.
Current progress
We introduced the Planning (Wales) Bill, Planning (Consequential Provisions) (Wales) Bill and associated documents to the Senedd on 15 September 2025.
The Bills are supported by an explanatory memorandum. This includes:
- Explanatory notes: to help readers understand the Bills. They do not provide a full description of everything the Bills contains
- Drafters’ notes: explains decisions taken in the drafting of the legislation
- Tables of origins: explain the legislative source of provisions in the Bills
- Tables of destinations: explain where provisions in the existing legislation now sit in the Bills
Next steps
The Senedd website has more information on:
- how the Bills will be scrutinised
- how the Bills are progressing through the scrutiny process
- how you can get involved
Visit the Senedd webpages for the Bills to find out more.