Written question asked by Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party) on Tuesday, 19 July 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 21 July 2005. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Wednesday, 5 October 2005 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Correspondence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her Department's policy is for dealing with and responding to correspondence received in (a) Welsh, (b) Scots Gaelic and (c) Irish Gaelic.

Answer: My Department operates a Welsh Language Act Scheme in accordance with section 21(3) of the Welsh Language Act 1993. Under this scheme if someone writes to us in Welsh we will issue any reply in Welsh. If someone writes to us in either—Scots Gaelic or Irish Gaelic we will endeavour to issue any reply in the same language but are under no statutory obligation to do so. Our target time for replying will be the same as for replying to letters written in English.

Secondary information