Campaigners say Senedd must be subject to its own Welsh Language Standards

Stephen Price

Welsh language campaigners are calling for action to address the unique arrangements of the Official Language Act that apply to the Senedd, which they say allows the Senedd to ignore standards that apply to other public bodies without consequence.

Following the publication of the Senedd’s annual report on the implementation of its Official Languages Scheme for 2025-26, which shows that the Senedd “made a decision” not to comply with elements of the plan, Cymdeithas yr Iaith has repeated its call for the Senedd to come under Welsh Language Standards.

The Senedd released its Annual Reports and Accounts yesterday (Wednesday 15 July) and one of the reports includes an annual report on the Language Scheme.

Page 20 of the report shares: “Regrettably, in the closing months of 2025, due to a number of considerations, not least being staff well-being, an unprecedented but conscious decision was taken to breach the Official Languages Scheme. To this effect, internal briefing documents for Members in committee meetings were provided in English only, with bilingual versions of the questions. The decision was made based on several factors, including:

▪ unavoidable staff absence;
▪ an unprecedented number of Bills all concluding their legislative journey through the Senedd before the election;
▪ an exponential increase in the volume of text translation work
emanating from the Business Directorate with very limited
turnaround time for translation;
▪ the fact that these documents are not widely circulated, and have limited use following the committee meeting as a new briefing document is prepared for the next meeting;
▪ a lack of capacity within the external translation companies on our
call-off contract.

“This decision was conveyed to the Committee Members, with the opportunity to discuss further with members of the integrated teams who support the committees if required.”

Welsh language campaigners Cymdeithas yr Iaith have argued that this shows the Senedd decided not to comply with its own Language Scheme, and since it monitors its own Language Scheme there are no consequences – saying that this is not only bad practice but an anomaly in public life.

Notably, all other public bodies like local authorities, health boards, national bodies like the Commissioners, Medr etc. have Language Standards set on them by the Welsh Language Commissioner who regulates them and has the power to make recommendations or set action points for bodies if they don’t comply with the standards.

It’s also the Senedd that asks the Welsh Language Commissioner to set Standards on any bodies, but Cymdeithas say that their own system when it comes to the Senedd itself should be aligned.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s language rights spokesperson, Aled Thomas, said: “This confirmation that the body that provides services to the Senedd made a deliberate decision not to comply with its statutory Official Languages Scheme during the last Senedd is the latest evidence that the unique arrangements of the Official Languages Act are not fit for purpose.

“No other body subject to the Welsh language standards – as the rest of our public sector is – would have been able to behave in this way without being held to account.

“We will be seeking an urgent meeting with the Llywydd to get confirmation of the timetable and the next steps of their review of the legal framework – a review which must lead to making the Senedd subject to the Welsh Language Standards and the 2011 Measure, establishing enforceable language rights.

“We will also be writing to the Committee with responsibility for Welsh asking them to establish which politician or politicians took the decision to stop complying with the law, and to conduct a review into all aspects of the Welsh language within our national legislature, along similar lines to the work done on creating a family-friendly Senedd before the election.”

The Welsh Government was asked to respond.

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