APPENDIX 1
Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Chairman of the Welsh Affairs Committee
As part of our inquiry into Social Exclusion in Wales
we intend to hold an informal meeting with a representative group
of young people who are suffering social exclusion. The meeting
is to be organised in conjunction with the Wales Youth Agency.
Our original intention was to invite the participants
to come to Westminster. Because some of them will be first-language
Welsh-speakers, we asked the Clerk of the House, as Accounting
Officer, whether it would be possible - exceptionally - to provide
simultaneous translation into Welsh on this occasion. He replied
that he could not authorise such expenditure, since the recommendation
of the Procedure Committee in its Third Report of Session 1995-96
(The Use of the Welsh Language in Parliamentary Proceedings in
Wales) which was agreed to by the House related only to meetings
held in Wales. Obviously, the views of the Accounting Officer
on the matter are conclusive and we have therefore decided to
hold the meeting in Wales.
We should appreciate it, however, if your Committee
could look again at this matter. The current Welsh Language Act
was enacted in 1993, and the advent of devolution has given considerable
impetus to bilingualism in public affairs even where the provision
of Welsh is not a strict legal requirement. Moreover, if we were
to invite a Welsh-speaking Assembly Member to give evidence to
us in Westminster he or she would think it odd not to be able
to use Welsh as a matter of course. That said, if given the facility
for witnesses to speak Welsh in Committee meetings at Westminster
we would not expect to call on it very often, given that we have
only used the facility on four occasions since the beginning of
the present Parliament (although we are going to do so again on
Monday 22 May). I should also emphasise that what we seek is a
facility for witnesses: there is no question in my mind
of Committee Members themselves being able to use Welsh with English-speaking
witnesses or when deliberating, since in this case the normal
rules of debate in the Chamber should apply.
Mr Martyn Jones
17 May 2000
|
