2024 in Wales

Events from the year 2024 in Wales.

Incumbents

• First Minister – Mark Drakeford (until 20 March), Vaughan Gething (from 20 March)
• Secretary of State for Wales – David T. C. Davies
• Archbishop of Wales – Andy John, Bishop of Bangor
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Myrddin ap Dafydd
• National Poet of Wales – Hanan Issa

Events

January

• 1 January – Social services in Wales have estimated they face a £646m shortfall over the next three years as a result of Welsh Government budget cuts.
• 2 January – Provisional data released by the Met Office indicates 2023 was the second warmest year on record in the UK behind 2022, with Wales and Northern Ireland experiencing their warmest year on record during 2023.
• 3 January – Huw Jakeway, chief fire officer of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, announces his departure from the role following the publication of a report concluded that the service had tolerated sexual harassment and domestic abuse outside work.
• 4 January – Storm Henk causes widespread flooding in many parts of Wales. Twenty-five Welsh rivers are the subject of warnings.
• 6 January – Jeremy Miles rules out reversing Wales's 20 mph speed limit if he becomes first minister.
• 8 January
  • Road speed limits in Wales:
    • Police begin enforcing Wales's 20 mph speed limit.
    • Outgoing First Minister Mark Drakeford says that drivers who are "genuinely confused" about the new speed limit rules will not be prosecuted.
• 9 January – Fijian rugby union player Api Ratuniyarawa is sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court to two years and ten months in prison after admitting three sexual assaults in a Cardiff nightclub in late 2023.
• 10 January – All local authorities in Wales are to ban the practice of giving away pets, such as goldfish, at funfairs and other events held on public land, but RSPCA Cymru urges the Welsh Government to legislate for a ban to prevent it continuing on private land.
• 11 January
  • Dyfed-Powys Police have launched a hate crime investigation after a note was attached to a property in Aberystwyth describing its occupants as "low-life" who should go back to "Brummyland".
  • Presteigne and Norton in Powys are announced as Wales's first dark sky community.
• 15 January – Junior doctors in Wales are scheduled to begin a three-day strike over pay.
• 16 January – Rhodri Williams announces he has written to the UK government to ask them not to consider him for a second term as chairman of S4C following controversy at the TV channel.
• 18 January – A report prepared by the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales, a body co-chaired by Dr Rowan Williams and Professor Laura McAllister, concludes that Welsh independence is a "viable" option, but that an independent Wales would face significant challenges such as raising enough tax revenue in the short term. The report also recommends that Westminster should grant Wales full control of its rail network, policing and justice as soon as is possible.
• 19 January
  • Tata Steel announce plans to close both blast furnaces at its Port Talbot plant with the loss of around 2,800 jobs.
  • Fire breaks out at a warehouse owned by Owens Group on the Bridgend Industrial Estate, leading to the building's collapse within minutes.
• 23 January – Data from Public Health Wales shows a sharp increase in the number of whooping cough cases in Wales, with 135 so far in January, compared to 200 for the whole of 2023.
• 25 January – Wedding DJ Leigh Brookfield of Llanelli, who filmed himself urinating on a 72-year-old cancer patient then posted the footage on social media, is sentenced to 14 weeks imprisonment.
• 26 January – Education Minister Jeremy Miles criticises the way Wales' largest trade union, Unite, declared its preferred candidate for the Welsh Labour leadership election. The union held a hustings with the two candidates before announcing its support for Vaughan Gething.
• 27 January – Dorrien Davies is consecrated Bishop of St David's.
• 30 January
  • Members of the Senedd vote 39–14 to back the Senedd Reform Bill which will expand the legislature to 96 members at the 2026 Senedd election and change the way members are elected.
  • Mark Drakeford says the Welsh Government is willing to talk to the Welsh Rugby Union about the terms of repaying an £18m loan given to it during the pandemic after the WRU asked for "breathing space".
• 31 January – Data released by Dyfed-Powys Police reveals the force spent over a £1m dealing with protests related to plans for asylum seekers to be housed at Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, a scheme that was eventually scrapped by the Home Office.

February

• 1 February
  • It becomes a criminal offence to own an American XL Bully dog in England and Wales unless the owner has successfully applied for the dog to be exempt.
  • Pwllheli Lifeboat Station in Gwynedd is forced to close due to a "serious breakdown" in relationships between crew members.
  • Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, has argued plans to expand the Senedd from 60 to 96 MSs would be the equivalent of expanding the House of Commons from 650 to 2,000 MPs.
• 3 February – Seventeen grassroots music venues across Wales experiencing financial difficulties are offered £718,000 in Welsh Government funding to help keep them open.
• 4 February – Dafydd Wigley, a former leader of Plaid Cymru, warns that reforms to Wales's political system pose "a very great danger" since it will destroy the relationship between voters and the people they elect.
• 6 February
  • Welsh Government minister Hannah Blythyn announces that the Welsh Government will take over South Wales Fire and Rescue Service after it was found to have a culture of harassment and misogynism.
  • Education Minister Jeremy Miles confirms that University tuition fees will rise from £9,000 to £9,250 a year from September 2024.
• 7 February – Pembrokeshire County Council proposes a council tax rise of between 16% and 21%, potentially making it the highest annual council tax rise in Wales.
• 8 February – The Welsh Government announces it is axing its School Beat Cymru scheme in which police officers visit schools to deliver lessons on substance abuse, safety, safeguarding and behaviour.
• 9 February – At Swansea Crown Court, David Clarke, 80, is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years and eight months after previously admitting to the murder of his wife, Helen, who he struck with a hammer before setting their car alight while she was unconscious inside the vehicle, and following an argument about an affair.
• 10 February – A pilot is taken to hospital after his light aircraft crashes into the back garden of a house in Bodffordd, Anglesey.
• 12 February – Pembrokeshire County Council's cabinet approves proposals to increase its council tax by 16%.
• 13 February – A coroner's verdict on the death of Newport man Phillip Morris at a private hospital in Surrey in December 2021 leads to calls for "more of an openness" about the safety record of private healthcare.
• 14 February – Former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock endorses Vaughan Gething to lead Welsh Labour as the next First Minister of Wales.
• 15 February –
  • A Met Office yellow weather warning for heavy rain is in force for much of south and west Wales.
  • Bishopston Comprehensive School in Swansea is closed indefinitely amid concerns over ground movement, and its pupils will not be able to return after half-term.
• 16 February – The ballot to elect the next leader of Welsh Labour opens.
• 17 February –
  • The Fire Brigades Union passes a motion of no confidence in Stuart Millington, the recently-appointed interim Chief Fire Officer of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service after allegations of bullying.
  • Noel Mooney, the chief executive of the Football Association of Wales, signals his support for matches being played during the summer after 6,000 games were lost over the 2023–24 season because of weather conditions and inadequate facilities.
• 21 February – Junior doctors in Wales begin a 72-hour strike.
• 22 February – Figures from NHS Wales show hospital waiting lists in Wales have fallen for the second month in a row, with 756,333 "patient pathways" on the waiting list in December 2023.
• 24 February – Charlotte Church attends a fundraising event for Middle East Children's Alliance at Bedwas Workmen's Hall, Caerphilly county, where she leads a chorus of "From the river to the sea", a pro-Palestinian chant regarded as antisemitic by some. Following criticism from Jewish groups, including the Campaign Against Antisemitism, Church responds with a social media post in which she says she is "in no way antisemitic" but is "fighting for the liberation of all people".
• 25 February –
  • Framing Minister Lesley Griffiths says the Welsh Government will rethink its post-Brexit farming strategy following protests by farmers; current plans would see them required to use 10% of their land for growing trees.
  • Speaking ahead of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry's three week session in Wales, Laura McClelland, a senior intensive care doctor, describes the practice of discharging untested patients to care homes during the pandemic as "a form of genocide".
• 27 February – The UK COVID-19 Inquiry begins sitting in Wales, and hears that Health Minister Vaughan Gething deleted WhatsApp messages during the pandemic.
• 28 February –
  • Thousands of farmers stage a protest in Cardiff city centre over the Welsh Government's environmental subsidy plans.
  • John Harding is sentenced to fifteen years in prison after being found guilty of ten charges of rape, strangulation and false imprisonment against two women following a trial at Merthyr Crown Court.

March

• 1 March – The annual Cân i Gymru (Song for Wales) contest is held in Swansea, and is won by Sara Davies with the song "Ti".
• 3 March – Train fares in Wales increase by 4.9%.
• 4 March –
  • Consultants and specialist doctors vote to take strike action over pay.
  • Lee Waters announces he is stepping down as Transport Minister when the new First Minister is elected.
• 5 March – A bid by the Welsh Conservatives and Welsh Liberal Democrats to change planned reforms to the way Senedd members are elected from the 2026 election is rejected by the parliament.
• 6 March – Senedd member Rhys ab Owen is to be banned from the Senedd for six weeks after an investigation by the Senedd Commission found he inappropriately touched two women during a night out in June 2021.
• 7 March – Pembrokeshire Council votes to increase its council tax by 12.5%.
• 9 March – Aneurin Bevan Health Board apologises after a mix up lead to the wrong body being released from a hospital mortuary for burial, the second such mix up made by a hospital in the health board.
• 10 March – Nerys Evans, a former Senedd member for Plaid Cymru, calls for the parliament to have the powers to remove members for inappropriate behaviour.
• 11 March –
  • The occupants of around forty houses in Hirwaun managed by Trivallis Housing Association are advised to evacuate the properties following the discovery of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
  • After the Welsh Government publishes plans to require parties in the Senedd to draw up lists of candidates composing of 50% of women, presiding officer Elin Jones says that the Senedd does not have the power to enforce gender quotas.
• 13 March – The Senedd agrees to exclude member Rhys ab Owen for six weeks following a night out where he inappropriately touched two women; ab Owen apologises "unreservedly" for his behaviour.
• 14 March – Former Conservative MP Guto Bebb is appointed interim chair of S4C.
• 15 March – Speaking to the BBC ahead of the results of the Welsh Labour leadership election, First Minister Mark Drakeford cites drunks waiting at A&E as the reason A&E waiting time targets have never been met in Wales, and suggests it would be better if the targets did not include treating those who have been drinking.
• 16 March – Vaughan Gething is elected to lead Welsh Labour, and will become First Minister of Wales. He will be Wales's first black leader, and the first black person to lead a country in Europe.
• 18 March – Licence points and fines can now be issued for anyone breaching the speed limit in a 20mph zone.
• 19 March – Mark Drakeford attends his final First Minister's Questions as First Minister of Wales.
• 20 March –
  • The Senedd approves Vaughan Gething as First Minister of Wales, and he is duly sworn in.
  • The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman launches an investigation following the deaths of six prisoners at HMP Parc near Bridgend in a period of three weeks between 27 February and 19 March.
• 21 March – Vaughan Gething announces his cabinet. Appointments include Jeremy Miles, who becomes Economy and Environment Minister and Lynne Neagle, who becomes Education Minister.
• 22 March – At Swansea Crown Court, James Smith is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 28 years for the September 2022 murder of Ashley Sersero in Llanneli.
• 24 March – OVO Energy has been accused of "degrading" the Welsh language by campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith after axing its Welsh service and suggesting customers could use online translation tools to read their energy bills instead.
• 25 March – Junior doctors in Wales begin a four-day strike, their longest to date.
• 27 March – Luke Avaient and Gavin Sheppard of Cardiff are married by Lorraine Kelly live on her daytime ITV programme to mark the tenth anniversary of the first same-sex marriage to occur in the UK.
• 28 March – School absence figures for the year ending July 2023 indicate 28.9% of primary school children were persistently absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of lessons, compared to 12.9% for the 2018–19 academic year.
• 31 March –
  • The Welcome Ticket scheme, introduced by the Welsh Government in March 2022 to provide refugees with free bus travel, ends after two years.
  • East Camp in St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, is to be used to house people who worked with the British military in Afghanistan before the Taliban retook power in 2021.

April

• 3 April – Sinead Cook, an investigator at the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, is suspended for posting anti-Conservative abuse on social media.
• 4 April – Cardiff is announced as the host of the 2027 EuroGames, Europe's largest LGBTQ+ sporting event, becoming the first UK city to stage the event.
• 5 April – Swansea University announces it is cutting 200 posts due to "financial challenges" in higher education.
• 6 April – Pembrokeshire Council gives the go-ahead to a £5.7m new bridge in Haverfordwest.
• 7 April – Sophie Ingle announces she is stepping down as Wales captain after nine years in the role.
• 9 April – A two-day strike by senior consultants and doctors planned to begin on 16 April is suspended following "constructive talks" and a "significant" pay offer from the Welsh Government.
• 11 April – Steelworkers belonging to the Unite union vote to take industrial action over Tata Steel's UK restructuring plans.
• 14 April – Museum Wales announces the loss of 90 jobs, and says it may be forced to close its building in Cardiff, after its funding was cut by the Welsh Government.
• 15 April – Tata Steel threatens to withdraw a "significantly enhanced" redundancy package if workers go on strike.
• 16 April – The Welsh National Opera announces it is cutting back on performances because of cuts in funding from the Arts Council of Wales and the Arts Council of England.
• 17 April –
  • Transport Minister Ken Skates says there will be changes to Wales's default 20mph speed limit in built up areas, with schools, hospitals and nurseries targeted as areas where it should be applied.
  • The Equality and Human Rights Commission warns that plans to enforce gender equality in the Senedd may be unlawful because it may breach the Equality Act if candidates can self-identify as female when that is not their legal sex.
• 20 April – Transport Minister Ken Skates announces that some roads will revert to a 30mph speed limit following public backlash over the default 20mph restrictions.
• 21 April – Cardiff teenager Lloyd Martin, who had Down's syndrome, makes history as the youngest person in his learning disability category to complete a marathon after he finishes the 2024 London Marathon.
• 23 April – Transport Minister Ken Skates announces that the process of reverting the speed limit on some roads from 20mph back to 30mph will begin in September.
• 24 April – Three people are injured and one other is arrested in a stabbing at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford.
• 25 April – A 13-year-old girl is charged with three counts of attempted murder following the previous day's school stabbing at Ammanford.

Arts and literature

National Eisteddfod of Wales

• TBD

Music

Albums

• Feeder – Black/Red

Broadcasting

English language television

• Tree on the Hill, English-language version of the Welsh-language series Pren ar y Bryn, starring Rhodri Meilir
• The Way, by James Graham, Michael Sheen and Adam Curtis, directed by Sheen and starring Luke Evans, Steffan Rhodri, Paul Rhys and Sheen himself.

Sport

• 10 January – Gemma Grainger stands down as manager of the Wales women's national football team to take up the position of head coach with Norway.
• 12–18 February – The Welsh Open snooker tournament is held at Llandudno.
• 26 February – Rhian Wilkinson is appointed as manager of the Wales women's national football team.
• 16 March – Wales national rugby union team head coach Warren Gatland reveals he offered to resign his position after Wales attained the first Six Nations wooden spoon in 21 years, but his offer was rejected by Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Abi Tierney.

Deaths

• 4 January
  • (in the United States) Glynis Johns, actress of Welsh ancestry, 100
  • Leah Owen, singer and singing teacher, 70 (cancer) (death announced on this date)
• 6 January – Malcolm Price, 86, rugby union and rugby league player.
• 8 January – J. P. R. Williams, 74, rugby union player (Barbarians, British & Irish Lions, national team).
• 26 January – Graham Drury, 71, motorcycle speedway rider.
• 4 February – Barry John, 79, rugby union player (Cardiff, Barbarians, national team).
• 17 February – Bill Francis, 76, rugby league player (Wigan, national team, Great Britain).
• 19 February – Ewen MacIntosh, 50, comic actor
• 4 March – Lewis Jones, 92, rugby union (Llanelli, national team) and rugby league (Leeds, Great Britain) player. (death announced on this date)
• 10 March – Karl Wallinger, 66, Welsh musician (The Waterboys, World Party) and songwriter ("Ship of Fools").
• 14 March (date death announced) – Mal Lucas, 85, footballer
• 14 March – Zonia Bowen, 97, English-born writer, founder of Merched y Wawr
• 17 March – Morfydd E. Owen, 88, academic
• 8 April – Keith Barnes, 89, Welsh-born Australian Hall of Fame rugby league player (Balmain Tigers, New South Wales, national team), coach and commentator.
• 19 April – Leighton James, 71, Welsh footballer (Burnley, Swansea City, national team).
• 23 April – George Baker, 88, Welsh footballer (Plymouth Argyle, national team).
• 24 April – John O'Shea, 83, Welsh rugby union player (Cardiff RFC, British & Irish Lions, national team). (death announced on this date)

Holidays

Source:

• 1 January – New Year's Day
• 29 March – Good Friday
• 1 April – Easter Monday
• 6 May – Early May bank holiday
• 27 May – Spring May Bank Holiday
• 26 August – Summer Bank Holiday
• 25 December – Christmas Day
• 26 December – Boxing Day

See also

• 2024 in Northern Ireland
• 2024 in Scotland
• 2024 in Ireland

References

External links

• Online calendar