An introduction to the Welsh Language Measures

It’s nearly five years since the Welsh Language Measures (Mesur y Gymraeg) passed through the Assembly, and yesterday Meri Huws, the Welsh Language Commissioner, after extensive consultation, issued notices to the Welsh Government, local councils and national parks informing them of the requirement for them to transition to the new Standards.

The new Standards are likely to mark an improvement in the services that will be offered to Welsh speakers:

• they are likely to bring greater standardisation than under the old system where each organisation prepared their own Welsh Language Scheme;
• require some organisations to provide a wider range of services through the medium of Welsh; and
• require more organisations to provide some services in Welsh, including Welsh Language services from a number of private sector organisations

The 176 standards have been split into six Schedules, which at the highest level include:

• Service delivery standards: applying to the services that organisations offer to the public and their public facing activities (phone lines, websites, reception areas, advertising, forms, documentation, etc.)
• Policy making standards: likely to only apply to those who define policy which may impact or influence people's use of the language
• Operational standards: ensuring that organisations internal administration adequately addresses Welsh speaking staffs’ needs, and looking at Welsh language usage in related processes such as recruitment, training, signage and announcements
• Promotion standards: requiring certain bodies to have a strategy for maintaining or increasing the number of Welsh speakers in the organisation’s locality
• Record keeping standards: requiring the organisation to keep records of complaints, staff skills and posts, and training courses
• Supplementary standards: largely requirements to report on performance against the Standards with which your organisation has to comply

The Welsh Language Commissioner has notified the first 26 organisations of their need to comply with the Standards, with implementation timetabled to complete by 26 March 2016. The second and third rounds will cover an additional 183 organisations, including UK wide government organisations, regulators and professional bodies, and Wales based police, health, education, cultural and social housing organisations. Some private sector organisations will also be affected, including providers of postal services, post offices, and water companies (supply, distribution and sewerage) and future rounds are likely to include providers of bus and railway services, gas suppliers, gas distributors, electricity suppliers, electricity distributors and telecommunications providers.

The Welsh Language Commissioner has a duty to ensure that the implementation of the Measures is not excessively onerous, and therefore not all Standards will apply to all organisations. For organisations that were within the scope of the Welsh Language Act, the Standards will ensure greater uniformity of their Welsh Language provision, and as such many organisations are likely to need to invest in some level of change, and may find that their on-going operational costs change. Welsh County Councils have estimated costs of implementing the new Standards ranging between ￡0 and ￡700,000. In the future, private sector organisations are likely to be required to comply with a partial set of Standards, but as few of them currently provide Welsh language services they are likely to need to make more significant changes.

So what should you do?

• Work out if you are going to be affected? If your organisation is listed in this document from the Welsh Language Commissioner, you will be required to implement Standards, probably during 2016. Additionally, if you work in any of the sectors listed above then there is a good chance that you will come into scope of the Measures during the next few years if you offer services in Wales.
• Review the Standards. They are now relatively mature, having received significant consultation, and with the desire to increase the consistency of services provided by all organisation, can probably now be considered quite stable for the later rounds of implementation.
• Map out how well you comply: Identify which Standards you are likely to need to comply with, and carry out a gap analysis to understand the amount of change you are likely to need to carry out in order to comply.
• Build a plan: As we all know, the longer we have to plan and make change to our organisations, the better we can manage the costs of change and the greater likelihood of it succeeding; in contrast, last minute implementations are often expensive and may have insufficient impact.

Based on the current round where organisations have been given six months to comply, it is likely that organisations with existing Welsh Language Schemes will get six months notification to comply with the new Standards. Other organisations may be allowed a longer compliance period from receiving notification, although given those organisations may have fewer Standards to comply with there is no guarantee that this period will be longer.

However, it's not all about compliance; I'll write again at a future date about some of the benefits you might achieve from delivering Welsh Language services.