Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 26 January 2022.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:32, 26 January 2022

(Translated)

No. The Member was in the committee to hear the discussion and he heard my response to the point that was raised—I'm sure of that.

This question in terms of promotion is an interesting one I think. I think it's—. The word 'promotion' can mean a number of different things. Language policy develops over time and we learn to do things differently and to work more effectively. What we have now is a range of policies in areas that we would have generally described as 'promotion' in the past.

So, one of the things we're doing is looking at the grants for promotion to see exactly what they do—they haven't been assessed since we took responsibility for that grant programme, so we're looking at all of those interventions to see whether they're working to their greatest capacity to ensure the prosperity of the Welsh language. And I would encourage Members to think of it as a further opportunity to scrutinise the work of Government, rather than me explaining in general terms the promotional work that we do. There are specific steps in train and you can look at them and assess them. And I think that is a more practical way of making progress in terms of the Welsh language more generally.

In terms of the comments of the commissioner, and anyone else who is encouraging the Government to do as much as we can in terms of Welsh-medium education provision, you will see no greater advocate for that than me. And I agree entirely that we need to do as much as we can as quickly as we can in terms of Welsh-medium education provision, and I want to ensure that there is equal access in all parts of Wales for anyone who wants Welsh-medium education. Fortunately, we already have a commitment to provide legislation in this area, so that, during this Senedd term, we can ensure that there is a stronger statutory basis for the provision of Welsh-medium education. But as you've already heard, the WESPs that the local authorities have been working on are expected to be ambitious. I've only seen them in draft form at the moment, and I do think they provide us with an opportunity to go further over the next decade.