Appendix 1
S.I. 2018/975
Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2018
1.By a letter dated 17 October 2018, the Committee sought a memorandum on the following points:
In the new rule 5.6, explain what is intended to be covered by “having a connection with” Wales and “appropriate arrangements”.
2.The Ministry of Justice’s response to the Committee’s query is set out below.
3.The new rule 5.6 inserted into the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 by rule 4 of the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2018 (referred to hereafter as “the Amendment Rules”) is part of a package of amendments intended to provide underpinning for the principles provided for in the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 concerning the status and use of the Welsh language in legal proceedings. The new rule 1.5 inserted by rule 3 of the Amendment Rules makes provision to reinforce the Welsh language principles by stating that nothing in the overriding objective undermines those principles (so that, for example, arguments about cost, etc., should not be used to raise barriers to the use of the Welsh language in proceedings where mandated by the Welsh Language Act 1993). The new rule 5.6 concerns the slightly different, although related, issue of the use of documents in the Welsh language.
4.The use of documents in the Welsh language is addressed by section 22(2) of the Welsh Language Act 1993, which makes clear that any power to make rules of court (so including the power to make Civil Procedure Rules) includes power to make provision as to the use, “in proceedings in or having a connection with Wales”, of documents in the Welsh language. The new rule 5.6 uses the same formulation (in the same way as new rule 1.5 uses the formulation of section 22(1) concerning the use of the Welsh language “in any legal proceedings in Wales”) The Welsh Language Act 1993 itself does not define “having a connection with Wales”, and it was not considered appropriate to seek to define it in the rules. It is, however, from its context in section 22(2) of the 1993 Act, capable of embracing proceedings which (for example) are not being held in Wales but concern matters which took place in Wales; and it is for that reason that the rule requires the court to be notified so that “appropriate arrangements” may be made. The reference to “appropriate arrangements” derives from the longstanding Practice Direction Relating to the Use of the Welsh Language in Cases in the Civil Courts in Wales, paragraph 1.3 of which provides—
“In every case in which it is possible that the Welsh language may be used by any party or witness or in any document which may be placed before the court, the parties or their legal representatives must inform the court of that fact so that appropriate arrangements can be made for the management and listing of the case.”
5.The “appropriate arrangements” envisaged by the new rule 5.6 will include arrangements for case management and listing, and may in majority of cases be limited to such arrangements; but there may be other arrangements which the court might, in the exercise of its general powers to further the overriding objective, consider it appropriate to take, and it was considered appropriate to leave “appropriate arrangements” open rather than restrict them to case management and listing arrangements.
Ministry of Justice
22 October 2018
Published: 2 November 2018