, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Thank you. I've enjoyed the conversations we've had in committee, so thank you very much, all.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
—mainstreaming as against concentration. To give you a different example, the debate I've remembered in almost every Government that's been formed: 'Do you have a Minister for children?'. And there's the argument: you have a Minister for children, it gives it…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
No, I don't think so. We haven't spoken about the work that is under way to strengthen the use of the Welsh language among the workforce in our public services, and a great deal of work has gone on. Jeremy has been leading on 'More than just words' and…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Thanks very much to Mick for those. On the late immersion side of things, I really think this is one of the strong success stories of the post-pandemic period. That's why the late immersion centres were really invented, because of anxieties that those young…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
'The Act is very difficult. It puts an awful lot of extra pressure into the system.' I want to just be proportionate about that. I don't think it is like that. If we can continue to build on the successes we have had, we will get to that 50 per cent.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Of course. Well, the legislation is helping us. We are dealing, just to be optimistic, with the success that we've had. When I came to Cardiff, there was no Welsh-medium primary school in the city at all, and now we are talking—and many people are part of the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
So, if we can manage to continue to have the same number of young people coming into Welsh-medium education over the next decade, we will meet the 50 per cent, because that number will be a percentage of a smaller base. It's not the challenge that some people…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, it's important to put that target into the context that we are going to face over the next decade. We know that there will be a significant fall in the number of students in our schools. So, when that number goes down, that will have an impact on the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
The question that Helen raised was: will the Act make a difference? I think it will, yes.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
As I understand it, the current system means if you're moving a school into a different category, even when that is a relatively marginal change, you have to use the same system as though you were changing the whole linguistic character of a school. Say you…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
I'm going to turn to Elin or Jeremy, if there's something that they could help me on there. As I understand it, the system that we have at the moment is quite difficult for local authorities who want to move schools from one category to another. Sorry, I'm…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, thank you very much for the question. This is one of the most important things in the Act, and it gives us a lot of opportunities, I think, here in Wales in the future. So, a lot of work has happened already. We have drawn three people into the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, I agree that there's a role there for the Government. It's a bit more difficult when you're dealing with something that's brand new, where no-one has used powers like those before. But the Government has a role to help other people to learn from the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, in my view, Chair, the commission's report does make quite a strong case for putting the law behind what they say about designating areas. I'm not saying—. When I refer to three phases, I'm not saying at all that I am opposed to that final phase; I just…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, I think there are a lot of things that we can do without moving on to that third phase in the process that I outlined. The first phase will put recognition of areas of higher density linguistic significance within the refreshed 'Cymraeg 2050' strategy…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, I had the opportunity to make a statement on the floor of the Senedd last week, or two weeks ago, to explain where we are on that. We have accepted quite a number of the recommendations. We have completed six of those. We think we're going to complete…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
I don't think that is the right answer. The right answer is for the commissioner to exercise her responsibilities to navigate standards in a way, as I say, that is reasonable and proportionate and allows registered social landlords to absorb the modest costs…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
The difficulty there is the one I pointed to, which is that you're asking people to make an estimate of costs for obligations where they don't know what those obligations will be. I'm absolutely confident that no housing association will be paying millions of…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, I will make two slightly different points, Chair. Just to be clear: one person's cost is another person's opportunity. The reason we have standards is because, in Wales, people have a right to use the Welsh language in their interactions with those very…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, Chair, I agree with what Gareth Davies says about the actions that the sector make already. They all have Welsh language schemes. We are not talking about moving from a world where RSLs do nothing for the Welsh language to suddenly having to do a hugely…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, one of the things that I'm very proud of that's come out of this term is that the Act, at Stage 4, was passed in the Senedd unanimously. Every party, every Member of every party, voted for that and were behind the Welsh language. I'm sure that there…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Sorry, I was just reminded. That was the title of the article, and it was all about code switching, as it's called, where people use it and how they use it and so on. It's very ordinary in other parts of the world, and it's very ordinary in Wales as well. One…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
Well, look, Mick, I think I agree with lots of that. Of course, when people speak Welsh, people go in and out of the language all the time. Am I allowed to say that an article that I remember reading a long time ago had the wonderful title, which was, 'O…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
And the census is only held once every decade. So, it isn't hugely useful in looking at whether the Government policies are having an impact. So, we will have to find other ways to help us find out whether we're travelling in the right direction, or if we are…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
General ministerial scrutiny: The Welsh Language
I don't think that snapshot data is the most useful to you as a Government; it's trend data you need to know, isn't it? The fact that you can have a snapshot that tells you that so many people did this on a certain day, well, was that more, was that less?…
