Ahead of the Senedd debate on the Welsh Language Commissioner’s Annual Report 2024-25 (18 November), we’re setting out some relevant background and key information.
- The Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations Committee scrutinises the Welsh Language Commissioner annually on its performance, financial management and regulatory functions.
- The Commissioner’s budget has faced consistent real-terms reductions over many years, and the financial allocation is significantly lower (£3.48m) than the budget allocated to the Commissioner when the organisation was first established (£4.1m).
- The Commissioner had previously identified potential issues to her organisation if additional funding was not forthcoming. During the reporting year, 4 members of staff left via a voluntary exit scheme.
- While the Commissioner is expecting an inflationary increase in her budget, of a little over 2% for 2026-27, she told the Culture Committee that this would be “sufficient hopefully to respond to cost of living increases for our officers… but nothing more than that in terms of developing activities”.
- Dealing with complaints about failures to provide Welsh language services is regarded an important part of her regulatory function. But a reduction in the number of complaints in 2024-25, and the decision not to investigate the majority of them brought some criticism from Cymdeithas yr Iaith.
- Nevertheless, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner robustly responded to such criticism, noting that “we would expect and hope that complaints reduce if performance is improving” and that there are “many elements to successful regulation.”
- The Commissioner also responded to criticism from Cymdeithas yr Iaith and others that she had “lost her way” in relation to regulation, stating her view that regulation was central to her work.
- Nevertheless, the shift towards ‘co-regulation’, that is, where organisations take more responsibility and self-regulate, and that the Commissioner provides more preventative support was, according to the Commissioner, based on principle,, and not a decision driven by budgetary constraints.
- And with up to 40 Housing Associations soon to come under the standards regime, this will only likely increase the Commissioner’s workload at a time when her staffing capacity has reduced.
- The Commissioner stated that this was a reason for moving to a regulatory system based on “risk assessment”, where she said the office would be providing more support for underperforming organisations.
You can watch the Senedd debate on the Commissioner’s report live on SeneddTV on 18 November.
Article by Osian Bowyer, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament.
