Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011

PART 1 E+W OFFICIAL STATUS OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE

1 Official status of the Welsh language E+W

(1) The Welsh language has official status in Wales.

(2) Without prejudice to the general principle of subsection (1), the official status of the Welsh language is given legal effect by the enactments about—

(a) duties on bodies to use the Welsh language, and the rights which arise from the enforceability of those duties, which enable Welsh speakers to use the language in dealings with those bodies (such as the provision of services by those bodies);

(b) the treatment of the Welsh language no less favourably than the English language;

(c) the validity of the use of the Welsh language;

(d) the promotion and facilitation of the use of the Welsh language;

(e) the freedom of persons wishing to use the Welsh language to do so with one another;

(f) the creation of the Welsh Language Commissioner; and

(g) other matters relating to the Welsh language.

(3) Those enactments include (but are not limited to) the enactments which—

(a) require the Welsh and English languages to be treated on the basis of equality in the conduct of the proceedings of the National Assembly for Wales;

(b) confer a right to speak the Welsh language in legal proceedings in Wales;

(c) give equal standing to the Welsh and English texts of—

(i) Measures and Acts of the National Assembly for Wales, and

(ii) subordinate legislation;

(d) impose a duty on the Welsh Ministers to adopt a strategy setting out how they propose to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language;

(e) create standards of conduct that relate to the use of the Welsh language, or the treatment of the Welsh language no less favourably than the English language, in connection with—

(i) delivering services,

(ii) making policy, and

(iii) exercising functions or conducting businesses and other undertakings;

(f) create standards of conduct in promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language;

(g) create standards of conduct for keeping records in connection with the Welsh language;

(h) impose a duty to comply with those standards of conduct that are created, and create remedies for failures to comply with them; and

(i) create the Welsh Language Commissioner with functions that include—

(i) promoting the use of the Welsh language,

(ii) facilitating the use of the Welsh language,

(iii) working towards ensuring that the Welsh language is treated no less favourably than the English language,

(iv) conducting inquiries into matters relating to the Commissioner's functions, and

(v) investigating interference with the freedom to use the Welsh language.

(4) This Measure does not affect the status of the English language in Wales.