Welsh election 2026: Who should I vote for? Compare party policies

Polls open in Wales on 7 May in an election that will see the Senedd Cymru, or Welsh Parliament, expand from 60 to 96 seats - have you decided which party will get your vote?

If not, this guide offers a simple summary of where the main parties stand on the issues most important to voters, based on the promises they have made during the campaign.

Select an issue from the options below and choose the parties that interest you to see their policies.

This interactive has been put together by the BBC's Visual Journalism team and BBC journalists in Cardiff. Its aim is to summarise where the parties stand on key topics to help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box.

The policies have been selected and summarised in an editorial process overseen by BBC journalists. All parties included in the guide have been contacted by the BBC and given the opportunity to identify their key policies in each area.

The policy areas featured in this guide were selected using polling data on what the public consider to be the most important issues facing their nations.

The polls were online surveys of more than 2,000 people in Wales and were carried out by Savanta for the BBC between 29 January and 6 February 2026.

Some issues have been grouped together under short titles for simplicity. For example, personal finance and tax, energy bills, inflation, poverty, benefits and childcare are all covered in the "Cost of living" category.

Some of the issues cover areas where the Senedd has limited power because of how devolution works. For example, the UK government in Westminster has control over most issues relating to "immigration".

For this reason, the guide highlights where most of the power lies for each issue to acknowledge that some party policies cannot become law unless they are passed by the UK government. You can find out more about devolution and reserved powers here.

In order for a party to be included in the guide it must be standing at least one candidate in each of the 16 constituencies or standing at least 32 candidates across a minimum of four constituencies.

Parties are ordered based on the number of seats they won in the last Senedd elections in 2021 and evidence of past and current electoral support.

You can find out which candidates are standing in your area using the BBC's tool here.

Produced by Adrian Browne, Tomos Livingstone, Dorian Morgan, Beta Yee, Zoe Bartholomew, Grace Richardson, Ryan Smith, Preeti Vaghela, Chris Clayton and Mike Hills.