The first piece of legislation dealing with the status of the Welsh language in recent times was the Welsh Courts Act 1942 which permitted limited use of the language in courts. The Welsh Language Act 1967 guaranteed the right to use Welsh more widely in court and also provided for its use in public administration. The Welsh Language Act 1993 established the principle that in the conduct of public business and administration of justice in Wales the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality. That act established the Welsh Language Board, giving it the role of promoting and facilitating the use of Welsh and a statutory duty to agree and monitor the implementation of public bodies’ Welsh language schemes. Those Welsh language schemes were to specify the measures the public bodies proposed to take so as to give effect to the act’s principle of equality.

The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure of 2011 includes a declaration that ‘the Welsh language has official status in Wales’. It provided for the establishment of a Welsh Language Commissioner and the abolition of the Welsh Language Board (see section on Promising Initiatives below).

British Sign Language has been recognised as a language in its own right but there is no directly related legislation, nor is there any for foreign and immigrant languages, apart from legislation relating to education. Languages other than Welsh, when mentioned in legislation other than that dealing with education, are largely mentioned in connection with interpretation or translation facilities.

Pre-primary education is not universally provided by the state; most of the provision comes from the voluntary sector. An organisation, now called Mudiad Meithrin, was formed in 1971 with the aim of providing Welsh-medium nursery schools. They have over 550 playgroups, estimated at providing for around 17 per cent of Wales’s two year olds. Over two-thirds of the children attending their playgroups come from homes where Welsh is not the main language. Attendance at the playgroup is their introduction to the language.

Over 20% of pupils in primary school are educated through the medium of Welsh, a proportion which has been gradually increasing for many years. Welsh-medium education is available throughout Wales. All other pupils are taught Welsh as a second language. Education through the medium of community languages (the preferred term in the UK for what LRE refers to as immigrant languages) or foreign languages is not available. Foreign languages are taught in some schools, as are immigrant languages to a lesser extent. English language support for ethnic minority pupils is also provided.

Welsh-medium secondary education is also increasing. By 2010/11 16.7% of pupils were being taught Welsh as a first language (nearly all in Welsh-medium schools). All other pupils are taught Welsh as a second language although the level of achievement is low. All pupils are also taught at least one foreign language during their first three years in secondary school. The percentage proceeding to take a public examination in a modern foreign language when aged 15 has been falling for many years: 28% were entered for a GCSE examination in a modern foreign language in 2010, compared with 50% in 1997. Community languages are taught in little more than a handful of secondary schools and sporadically, depending on pupil numbers which can fluctuate according to trends in immigration. As in the primary sector, English-language support for ethnic minority pupils is provided.

The three cities covered by the research are where the large majority of immigrant communities are to be found. Even so, demand and provision for education in any particular community language is limited. The use of Welsh as a medium of tuition is much more limited in these sectors. In higher education, Welsh-medium provision, although still not extensive, is mainly concentrated in universities not covered by the research, namely in Bangor and Aberystwyth, as well as at the University of Wales Trinity St David, Carmarthen. 

European Union domiciles accounted for five percent of all enrolments at Welsh higher education institutions in 2009/10 and non-EU overseas enrolments for another 13%. There is substantial provision for supporting these students in English.

The use of Welsh in audio-visual media is limited to the sole Welsh-language TV channel, S4C, (established in 1982) and largely to the national Welsh language radio service of BBC Radio Cymru (established in 1977).

Other languages have almost no presence at all in the mainstream audio-visual media outlets, beyond the occasional subtitled film on television.

In local and central government and its agencies the existence of Welsh language schemes, required by the Welsh Language Act 1993, ensures the availability of a number of services in Welsh and the extensive use of Welsh, for example on signage and forms. However, as the focus of the research is on three cities where the percentage of Welsh speakers is low compared to areas in the north and west of Wales, the provision of Welsh language services is also lower than it would be for areas with higher percentages of Welsh speakers. On the other hand, as these cities contain higher concentrations of immigrants, the use of interpretation services is probably greater than would be found elsewhere in Wales.

Internal business use of languages other than English in the cities is limited but some use of Welsh is made on signage and in advertising.

Efforts continue to be made to ensure equality of treatment for Welsh and English in Wales. Good progress has been made in school education but much remains to be done elsewhere. Foreign and immigrant languages both have a relatively weak presence even in the school education.

The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (National Welsh Language College) was established in 2011. It is not a single geographical entity, nor a degree awarding body. It will work with and through all universities in Wales to deliver increased opportunities for students to study through the medium of Welsh.

Under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 a Welsh Language Commissioner is to be established from 1 April 2012. The Commissioner will be given functions to promote and facilitate the use of Welsh, to work towards ensuring that Welsh is treated no less favourably than English, investigating interference with the freedom to use Welsh, and to conduct inquiries into related matters. The Commissioner must have regard to ‘the principle that persons in Wales should be able to live their lives through the medium of the Welsh language if they choose to do so’. The Welsh Ministers (in the National Assembly of Wales) must adopt a strategy setting out how they propose to promote and facilitate the use of Welsh. It also allows them to specify standards with which public bodies must comply. These standards will replace the current system of Welsh language schemes. The Commissioner will oversee the implementation of the standards.

The Welsh Government published its new Welsh language strategy on 1 March 2012.

Welsh Government (2010) Welsh-medium education strategy: information. Information document No: 083/2010, Cardiff, Welsh Government.
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dcells/publications/100420welshmediumstrategyen.pdf

Welsh Government (2010) Making languages count: Modern foreign languages in secondary schools and Learning Pathways 14-19 Information document No: 088/2010, Cardiff, Welsh Government.
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/publications/guidance/makinglanguagescount/?lang=en

Welsh Language Act 1993
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/38/pdfs/ukpga_19930038_en.pdf

Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/mwa/2011/1/pdfs/mwa_20110001_en.pdf

Welsh Government (2012) A living language: a language for living, Cardiff, Welsh Government.
http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dcells/publications/122902wls201217en.pdf