---

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

It is not a concern, as such, of mine. I am confident that the language commissioner’s functions will not be dissimilar from those of other commissioners who have been appointed in Wales. The functions of the Children’s Commissioner and the Commissioner for Older People vary somewhat, and we have seen changes in the equality legislation, so I think that the functions would be in such areas. We shall have to wait and see what the Assembly comes up with. There is a long list of bodies—I counted 18—that come within the scope of the LCO, from public authorities to royal charter bodies and, last but not least, bodies opting in. To save time, I will not go through them. I note that we have discussed telecommunication services already. I do not say this with any joy, but opponents of the LCO within the industry substantially overstated their case. Having done so, reality eventually tripped them up and telecommunications are in, although there were arguments about whether they should be out. Such a substantial list will establish a level playing field and organisations that have already developed their Welsh language services will not face unfair competition from bodies that have not done the work or had that expense. One might say that virtue is, therefore, rewarded and errors corrected, in that everyone will face the same circumstances. However, the long list has significant absentees, most notably large-scale private sector bodies. The CBI gave evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee and argued a self-contradictory case about the Welsh language and the private sector. It seemed to say, on the one hand, that under the current voluntary arrangements recorded demand for the language was small or even minuscule—““There is very little demand, so we don’t need this.”” On the other hand, it insisted that only the voluntary approach should be adopted in future—the very approach that allegedly led to low demand, despite the fairly large and ever growing proportion of people who speak Welsh. It seemed to be saying two things at the same time. During our evidence sessions, I asked witnesses from the CBI to resolve the apparent contradiction in their favouring a volunteer approach despite the fact that such an approach had manifestly not succeeded on their terms—in the number of bodies and inquiries. Sadly, I am still waiting for an answer.