Give WAG more Welsh language powers, say MPs

9 Jul 09
MPs have called for the Welsh Assembly Government to be given broader powers to legislate on the use of the Welsh language.
By Paul Dicken

09 July 2009

MPs have called for the Welsh Assembly Government to be given broader powers to legislate on the use of the Welsh language.

In a report published on July 7, the Commons Welsh affairs select committee said the WAG had made a good case for being able to change legislation and the ‘transfer of competence appears, in this regard, logical and appropriate’.

The current proposal for a Legislative Competence Order states that any organisation receiving more than £200,000 of public money should fulfil responsibilities for promoting and facilitating the use of Welsh.

The committee said the principle was appropriate, but the figure appeared to have been selected at random and it was not clear what types of organisation would be included.

The MPs recommended that the LCO move away from an ‘exhaustive list of categories’ for areas in scope of future legislation and create tests on reasonableness, proportionality and cost for any future measure to meet.
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said the committee was ‘calling for a fundamentally different approach’ and its proposals would need careful consideration.

Committee chair Hywel Francis said he was confident the concerns raised could be resolved if the report’s recommendations were accepted.

Menna Machreth, chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, the Welsh Language Society, said her organisation disagreed with the ‘committee’s attempt to weaken the powers in the LCO by suggesting that one-off payments of public money made to NGOs, charities and bodies with small numbers of employees or private sector companies should be excluded’.

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