9. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on Welsh in Education Strategic Plans? OAQ(5)0083(EDU)[W]

Some local authorities are still consulting on their Welsh in education strategic plans. Once I have received them all, I will make a statement on the way forward. As I have said already this afternoon, I am disappointed by the lack of ambition demonstrated by some of them.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to seeing your statement on these extremely disappointing plans. You’ve also announced your desire to reform the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and to present a White Paper before the summer in order to promote public discussion on the provision of a new Bill. It wasn’t clear to me what exactly the remit of the new Bill will be. For example, will the Bill encompass Welsh education and other strategic areas, or will it only appertain to Welsh language standards? And what exactly will the status of the Welsh language strategy be during the consultation on the White Paper? My concern is that the process of legislating, rather than working within the system that we have already, will truly slow down the progress towards 1 million speakers by 2050.

I very much hope that that isn’t the case. May I just say that what I just said in response to your question and to Mike Hedges’s question previously was that some of the plans had been disappointing, not all of them, and it’s important that we put that on record? When it comes to future legislation, we do have an agreement that we will consider and review the Welsh language Measure, the current Measure, that creates the statutory framework for the strategy and the status of the Welsh language. So, we will consider that. The strategy that will drive our work is a strategy that will describe our vision and how we are going to achieve that vision. I share your concern on occasion. I don’t want an endless debate on legislation. I don’t want to see that. I want to see action. But we must have the statutory framework in place that enables us to do that.

I am going to be a bit reticent this afternoon, if you will forgive me, because I don’t want to announce today the content of the White Paper that I’m going to publish at the beginning of the summer; I am still considering a few of the issues that you described. But when we do come to consider the White Paper and publish it, that will take into account how we create the kind of statutory framework that will support the strategy and enable us to achieve our vision.

I thank the Minister and the Cabinet Secretary.