12. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the Welsh language White Paper? OAQ51289

Well, I’m not a Cabinet Secretary, but I will respond to that question, and that is that the consultation on the White Paper, of course, closed about 15 days ago. We now have time to analyse the responses and we will bring some kind of response forward over the ensuing few weeks.

The common practice, I believe, is to refer the question to the Cabinet Secretary. 

The Minister yesterday referred to the need for evidence now for the best models in terms of language regulation. I think that the predecessor Minister had only been able to refer to a very general report on regulation from the House of Lords, which went back to 2004. So, there's a lack of an evidence base; there's no doubt about that. Can the Minister explain what kind of evidence, looking at best practice in terms of language regulation models across the world, that you will now be commissioning?

Well, I think that what we need to look at is success stories in language growth. There are examples in Europe: the Basque Country, for example, has been extremely successful, and I'm sure there are other examples. I will now set about studying those. But what is important is that we keep our eye on this. It's a question of priorities. That is what Nye Bevan used to say—you have to just prioritise things. More important for me than anything else is that we should keep an eye on these 1 million speakers. So, for me, it's more important that we focus on education and what we want to put in place for Welsh education. Of course we have to look at standards. Standards are going to be published, but as regards the priorities, I just want to keep an eye on those.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary and Minister.