WIREDGOV

The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to seeking the power to enable the National Assembly for Wales to legislate to confirm official status for both English and Welsh, linguistic rights in the provision of services and establish the post of Language Commissioner.

Over the summer, the Welsh Assembly Government has been engaged in discussions with the UK Government to consider the recommendations of the Assembly’s Legislation Committee No 5 and the Welsh Affairs Committee as well as evidence from stakeholders.

Following those discussions, the Minister will look to develop an Assembly Measure before the end of the Assembly term in 2011 which will allow Ministers to deliver on their One Wales commitments on the Welsh language.

During the discussions that have emerged from the scrutiny of the proposed Legislative Competence Order (LCO), a number of areas have been identified where the scope of competence will be revised. Those include:

• Specifying that duties may be imposed on a person under matter 20.1 only where there is a means for that person to challenge those duties as they apply to that person on grounds of reasonableness and proportionality. 
• Bringing bus services within competence under paragraph (h).
• Raising the minimum threshold which brings persons receiving public money within competence under paragraph (e) to £400,000, a step which addresses concerns that the previous threshold brought within competence a large number of organisations, including smaller organisations.  In line with the Welsh Assembly Government’s policy intention, the LCO will also be amended to ensure that duties may not be placed on bodies receiving one-off grants.
• The LCO will contain express provision which ensures that Welsh language duties may not be imposed in relation to the editorial freedom of broadcasters.  This is consistent with the Welsh Assembly Government’s policy with regard to editorial freedom.
• The LCO will include a more focussed approach to the inclusion within competence of bodies established by Royal Charter.  This will be achieved by including additional qualifying criteria which will bring within competence those bodies which deliver key services.
• In accordance with the Welsh Assembly Government’s policy intention, matter 20.1 will be modified so that the provision of services related to the services listed in paragraph (h) in shops which primarily sell goods will not be within competence under paragraph (h) save to the extent that the related services comprise post office counter services, the sale of tickets or the provision of timetables for bus and railway services.
• Only training funded wholly or partly by public money will come within competence.
• In order to respond to the concern about the inclusion of references to electricity and gas production and transmission – parts of the energy sector which have almost no public interface – references to production and transmission will be deleted from paragraph (h) of the LCO.

The main recommendation made by the Assembly’s Legislation Committee No 5 was that in relation to the Welsh language there should be “the transfer of a broad scope of legislative power to the Assembly”.  However, it is also the case that it is UK Government policy that a single LCO should not give the National Assembly legislative competence over an entire field in Schedule 5 of the Government of Wales Act and the Heritage Minister is satisfied that the agreed scope is broad enough to deliver the policy intentions as set out in the One Wales agreement.

Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones said: 

"The LCO process has provided an opportunity for a wide-ranging debate about the role of legislation in safeguarding and promoting the Welsh language.  I am pleased that during this process a clear consensus has emerged that there is now a need to update the current legislative framework."

"We are very pleased that both committees recognise that the National Assembly is the appropriate place to legislate on the Welsh language.  We are also pleased that both committees recognise the important role of a wide range of public bodies in delivering Welsh language services to the public in Wales and the key role of rapidly evolving technologies, such as telecommunications services, in promoting the use of the language, especially among young people."

The Welsh Grand Committee will debate the proposed Welsh Language LCO on 14 October.  Following completion of these discussions with the UK Government, the draft LCO will be laid before the National Assembly.

Welsh Language Board

The Welsh Language Board was created in 1993 to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language.