Welsh Language Commissioner publishes ‘ambitious’ manifesto

Stephen Price

The Welsh Language Commissioner has published a manifesto ahead of the Senedd Cymru election in 2026, calling for increased use of Welsh in the workplace and ensuring compulsory Welsh language training for the education workforce.

The manifesto, which Efa Gruffudd Jones hopes all parties will be willing to adopt, outlines five priority areas that could make a real difference to strengthening the position of the Welsh language in the first term of the new look Senedd, while recognising the financial challenges that organisations are facing.

These include extending Welsh language standards to priority areas, creating a specialist unit to increase the use of Welsh in the workplace and ensuring compulsory Welsh language training for the education workforce.

According to Efa Gruffudd Jones, Welsh Language Commissioner, the next Senedd term could be crucial in relation to the Welsh language

Hope

She shared: “My ambition as Commissioner goes beyond a narrow interpretation of what is expected of me and set out in the Welsh Language Measure, and I am keen to lead a body that does more and contributes more significantly to wider language planning work.

“As a result this manifesto calls for action and guidance from the Welsh Government, whatever its political makeup, and support to facilitate the work of other key partners, including the Welsh Language Commissioner.

“The next few years are extremely important for the Welsh language as the Welsh Language and Education Bill is delivered and as the recommendations of the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities are implemented.

“I am fully aware of the pressures on our public bodies and that is the reason for setting out five specific priorities in this manifesto. They follow the path outlined in our strategic plan and I am convinced that these are areas where difference can be made in the use of the language.

“We will now look to have discussions with the parties in order to present our manifesto and our rationale for setting out our priorities. The hope is that the parties will be ready to adopt our proposals and for those to be adopted before the election next year.”

Five priorities

The five priorities outlined in the manifesto are:

• Language duties – increase the number of Welsh language services available to the public by extending Welsh language standards to priority areas
• Community language planning – extend the Commissioner’s influence by strengthening the promotion standards as a framework for the co-ordination of intensive community language planning
• Workplaces – establish a specialist unit in the Welsh Language Commissioner’s office to increase the use of Welsh in workplaces
• Health and clinical care service – transform clinical care in Welsh through intensive investment and action in priority areas
• The education workforce – establish a five-year Welsh language training framework as a mandatory element of training as a teacher in Wales

You can read the Commissioner’s five year strategic plan by following this link