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National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Welsh Language)

On expenses, yes. Thank you. The pressure for change in Wales has often been led by people who feel obliged, rightly or wrongly, to take responsible, limited, non-violent direct action to make their point. It is significant, but unsurprising as far as I am concerned, that Cymdeithas yr Iaith, the Welsh Language Society, chose to give evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee on the legislative competence order. All hon. Members present agree that the evidence was of a high and persuasive quality. That is a positive step. I do not, of course, know what Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s campaigning intentions are, but I hope that it engages fully and positively in developing the forthcoming Assembly Measure and any subsequent Measures. I know from my experience of many years ago that some of the most creative and insightful proposals for the emancipation of the Welsh language have tended to come from the Cymdeithas; another example would be the proposals for a Welsh-language television channel. Unfortunately, in my experience such proposals have too often been ignored, possibly because of their source. However, the point has some bearing on remarks that I want to make a little later. Before I proceed any further, it would be useful briefly to consider the context of the LCO. Since the Acts of Union, with the section in the 1536 Act that no person who uses ““the Welsh Speech or Language shall have or enjoy any manner, office or Fees within this Realm of...the King’s””, there have been blanket, penalising provisions on the Welsh language, but the Courts of Wales Act 1942 allowed limited use of Welsh in the courts. The landmark Welsh Language Act 1967, introduced by a Labour Government, established the principle of equal validity, and the Welsh Language Act 1993 provided that Welsh and English should be treated on the basis of equality. That development occurred over several centuries, most significantly between 1942 and 1993. The process continues. What does the LCO seek to achieve? It allows the National Assembly to legislate, as with the 1993 Act, in the field of ““promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language”” and on the treatment of the Welsh and English languages being ““on the basis of equality””. That is the 1993 position. The LCO will also allow the National Assembly to legislate to place language duties on certain categories of bodies and to protect the freedom of persons wishing to use the Welsh language. I come from an intensely Welsh-speaking constituency, where that has been a matter of dispute fairly recently, in a commercial context—I do not have to go into the Thomas Cook business, but the matter was in dispute. Such a positive statement, although I do not know its value in law, is reassuring for Welsh speakers. We have already heard about the creation of the language commissioner, which is likely to be the first Measure, and the confirmation of equal status for the Welsh and English languages.