# 2025 in Wales

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
Events from the year 2025 in Wales.

## Incumbents

* First Minister – Eluned Morgan
* Llywydd of the Senedd – Elin Jones
* Secretary of State for Wales – Jo Stevens
* Archbishop of Wales – Andy John, Bishop of Bangor
* Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Mererid Hopwood
* National Poet of Wales – Hanan Issa

## Events
### January

* 1 January
** The Met Office issues a yellow weather warning for snow in Wales for the weekend of 4–5 January.
** The mystery runner at the Nos Galan race is revealed as boxer Lauren Price.
** The Welsh Ambulance Service officially declares the end of a "critical incident" that began on 30 December.
* 6 January – The UK bank accounts of Daniel Andreas San Diego, one of the United States' most wanted fugitives who was arrested in Wales after 21 years on the run, are frozen for 12 months following a hearing at Llandudno Magistrates' Court.
* 7 January
** Health Secretary Jeremy Miles tells the Senedd that the Welsh Ambulance Service was overwhelmed during Christmas and New Year due to the number of flu and respiratory cases.
** Police are called to Newport High School after three teachers are attacked by what is reported to have been an ex-student.
* 8 January – Proposals are published to give Members of the Senedd a 6% pay rise, taking the wages for a backbench MS to £76,380 in 2025–26, up from £72,057.
* 9 January – James Howells loses his attempt to sue Newport Council to make them recover a Bitcoin hard drive estimated to be worth about £598m from a rubbish tip.
* 10 January
** The actor Michael Sheen announces he is to fund a new theatre company, the Welsh National Theatre, to replace the National Theatre Wales, which folded in 2024.
** Le Pub, a music venue in Newport which was threatened with closure, has been bought by a community enterprise, Music Venue Properties (MVP), which aims to protect live music locations.
* 11 January – The death is reported of Leon Adams, who spent two years in a coma and was left paralysed and brain damaged following an attack in Cardiff on 14 February 2002.
* 14 January – Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar accuses Senedd Presiding Officer Elin Jones of "inappropriately interrupting him" after she tells him to "tone down" a question about grooming gangs while he called for a fresh inquiry into child sexual abuse.
* 15 January – A burst water pipe at Dolgarrog, Conwy county causes disruption, leading to the closure of schools and businesses. Around 40,000 properties are reported to be affected by the incident, with many remaining without water for several days despite supplies being restored.
* 16 January – Holyhead Port partially reopens following damage caused by Storm Darragh in December 2024.
* 17 January – An estimated 40,000 homes remain without water following a burst water pipe at Dolgarrog, Conwy county. Welsh Water says that although the pipe has been repaired, a water supply will not be fully restored for "up to 48 hours".
* 18 January – Welsh Water confirms that 40% of customers affected by a recent pipe burst have had their water restored, but some may have to wait until the next day for it to be fully restored.
* 19 January – Seven outdoor educational activity centres for schools run by the Inspiring learning Group are to close with immediate effect after the company went into administration.
* 21 January – First Minister Eluned Morgan tells the Senedd she is lobbying the UK government to give the Welsh Government powers over the Crown Estate in Wales, after a UK government minister suggested otherwise.
* 22 January – Following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court, Courtney Matthew is found guilty of throwing a cup of excrement at a prison officer while he was a prisoner at HMP Parc in Bridgend.
* 24 January
** Dylan Thomas, the grandson of Peter's Pies founder Stanley Thomas, is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his friend William Bush, who he stabbed to death on 24 December 2023.
** First Minister Eluned Morgan warns Wales' health bosses they will not get extra funds for their services unless they cut waiting times.
* 25 January – A group of seven students are rescued by lifeboat from Worm's Head on the Gower Peninsula after becoming trapped on the tidal island in stormy conditions.
* 28 January – Cardiff University announces plans to cut 400 full time posts because of a funding shortfall.
* 29 January – Andrew RT Davies, former leader of the Welsh Conservatives, is warned by Senedd authorities he will face punishment for any future rule breaking after failing to declare his interest as a farmer when asking questions about inheritance tax for farms.
* 31 January
** Two police officers are injured during an incident outside a police station in Talbot Green, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
** First Minister Eluned Morgan confirms she will contest the new seat of Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire at the 2026 Senedd election.

### February

* 3 February – A 14-year-old girl who stabbed two teachers and a student at Amman Valley School in Carmarthenshire is found guilty of attempted murder.
* 4 February – Welsh Conservatives leader Darren Millar and his colleague Russell George miss a Senedd vote on the Eluned Morgan government's budget for 2025–26 because they have travelled to the United States for the annual National Prayer Breakfast.
* 5 February – The Welsh Conservatives are absent from a Senedd debate concerning their former leader, Andrew RT Davies, but reject allegations they are boycotting the chamber's disciplinary process.
* 10 February – Darren Millar tells the Senedd he was in the "right place at the right time" as he defends his decision to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in the United States and miss a vote on the Welsh Government's budget. Millar also says he was promoting Welsh interests while in the US.
* 12 February – St Athan Primary School, in the Vale of Glamorgan, is evacuated following a fire, and will be closed for the rest of the week.
* 14 February – Network Rail is fined £3.75m after two workers were struck and killed in Port Talbot by a train travelling from Swansea to London in July 2019 following safety failures.
* 16 February – Whitehead-Ross, a company that was providing retraining for those affected by the redundancies at Tata Steel's Port Talbot site, closes its offices in the town.
* 17 February – After residents indicated 140 roads where they believed the 30 mph speed limit should be restored, Monmouthshire Council has concluded a review and decided that no roads with a 20 mph speed limit will be reverted.
* 18 February
** Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies announces that greyhound racing will be banned in Wales "as soon as practically possible".
** Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council grants planning permission for Tata Steel to build a £1.25bn electric arc furnace at its Port Talbot steelworks.
** New figures have revealed that police in Wales logged six offences each day relating to child sexual abuse during 2024.
* 19 February – Edmund Burke, Vice Chancellor of Bangor University, confirms that the university is to cut around 200 jobs in order to make £15m of savings.
* 20 February
** Welsh Labour and the Welsh Liberal Democrats agree a deal that will see the Liberal Democrats support Labour's 2025–26 budget. This will include a £1 bus fare cap on journeys for those between the ages of 18 and 21, as well as the previously mentioned ban on greyhound racing, and more money for the NHS in Wales and universal childcare. There is also an extra £4.4m for arts and culture.
** The latest data from NHS Wales shoes there are 800,395 waiting for NHS treatment, a fall of 2,268 since the previous figures were published in January.
** Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, is charged with offences relating to bribery and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday 24 February.
* 21 February – Social Justice Secretary Jane Hutt, who is the UK's longest serving minister after service in successive Welsh Governments since 1999, announces she will retire from the Senedd in 2026.
* 23 February – The Met Office issues an amber weather warning for heavy rain and floods for mid and south west Wales; there are also high guts of wind further inland.
* 24 February – The UK government rejects a call from Plaid Cymru to devolve responsibility for the Crown Estate in Wales to the Welsh Government, saying it would make no sense to do so.
* 28 February – Former train manager Nicholas McMurray is sentenced to seven years in prison after he is convicted of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman while checking her train ticket in June 2024.

### March

* 2 March – Train fares on Transport for Wales services are scheduled to increase, with off peak and day return tickets increasing by 6%, while single tickets increase by 3% and seven-day season tickets by 3.5%.
* 3 March – Richard Jones is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years for the July 2024 murder of Sophie Evans, his son's partner, who he wrongly believed had scammed him.
* 4 March
** The Senedd votes 29–28 to approve the Welsh Government's £26bn budget for 2025–26 after Labour secured the support of Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds to achieve a majority.
** Oakwood Theme Park, the largest theme park in Wales, announces its closure with immediate effect following a decline in the number of visitors.
* 7 March
** Around 80 people are to be made redundant from the Royal Mint in Llantrisant.
** Cardiff Council confirms that the speed limit on four busy roads in the city will be reverted from 20 mph back to 30 mph.
** Former Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart claims that Mark Drakeford, the country's First Minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, "dented people's confidence" in the UK government by claiming successful aspects of the fight against COVID as Welsh Government policy and the unsuccessful as UK government policy.
* 9 March
** Police began a murder investigation after a 40-year-old woman, subsequently named as Joanne Penney, is shot dead at a block of flats in Talbot Green. A man is arrested in connection with the incident.
** Following an unseasonably warm spell of weather, the highest temperature of the year so far is recorded at Hawarden in north Wales, with a high of 18.7 °C.
* 11 March
** Police investigating the shooting of Joanne Penney make a further four arrests; they are also investigating the possibility she was killed following a case of mistaken identity.
** The Democracy and Boundary Commission has decided that all Senedd seats will have Welsh language only names from 2026.
** Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, will speak at the 2025 Hay Festival, the event's organisers confirm.
* 12 March
** Data from Public Health Wales indicates an increase in alcohol-related deaths, with 562 deaths in 2023, a 15.6% increase on the previous year.
** Anthony Pierce, the former Anglican Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, is sentenced to four years and one month in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual abuse of a boy over a period of five years.
** Transport for Wales publishes new images of a proposed £140m upgrade to Cardiff Central railway station.
* 14 March
** A hearing at the Old Bailey sets a trial date of 29 June 2026 for Nathan Gill, who is accused of accepting bribes to make statements in the European Parliament that would have been beneficial to Russia.
** At Swansea Crown Court, three men are sentenced to eight years and one month in prison after pleading guilty to the attempted kidnapping of Israeli record producer Itay Kashti, who was lured to an isolated farm by the three, who posed as representatives of Polydor Records.
* 15 March – South Wales Police confirm that five people have been charged in connection with the death of Joanne Penney; four have been charged with murder and a fifth with assisting an offender.
* 17 March – South Wales Police launch a murder investigation following the disappearance of Charlene Hobbs, a 36-year-old woman from Cardiff, who was last seen in the city in July 2024.

### Music
#### Albums

* Adwaith – Solas

### Broadcasting
#### English language television

* Cleddau/The One That Got Away (English version), starring Richard Harrington. Welsh version shown on S4C in 2024.
* Wynne and Joanna: All At Sea

#### Welsh language television

* Tŷ Ffit

## Sport

* 6 January – Bangor City F.C. is dissolved by Companies House following a compulsory strike-off.
* 11 February – Warren Gatland resigns as head coach of the Wales national rugby union team following Wales's poor performance in the 2025 Six Nations Championship. Matt Sherratt is appointed as caretaker head coach.

## Holidays

see Public holidays in Wales

## Deaths

* 4 January – Jenny Randerson, Baroness Randerson, 76, Welsh politician and peer, acting Deputy First Minister of Wales (2001–2002) and member of the House of Lords (since 2011).
* 6 January – Meirion Roberts, 90, Welsh rugby union player (Cardiff, national team).
* 8 January – Geraint H. Jenkins, 78, historian (death reported on this date)
* 9 January – Emrys Roberts, 93, Plaid Cymru politician
* 10 January – Rhythwyn Evans, 95, farmer and fundraiser (nicknamed the Welsh Captain Tom).
* 6 February – Ernie Walley, 91, Welsh football player (Middlesbrough, Tottenham Hotspur) and manager (Barking). (death announced on this date)
* 7 February – Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas, 78, Welsh politician, llywydd of the Senedd (1999–2011), MP (1974–1992) and member of the House of Lords (since 1992).
* 3 March – Geraint Jarman, 74, Welsh musician, poet and television producer