§ 6. Mr. Goronwy Robertsasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he is satisfied with progress made in providing forms and explanatory material in the Welsh language by Government Departments in Wales in accordance with the principle of equal validity as recommended in the Hughes Parry Report and embodied in the Welsh Language Act 1967; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter ThomasThe number of Welsh or bilingual versions of official forms is now 351, compared with 246 in June 1970. Informative material in Welsh issued by Government Departments is also increasing steadily. I am satisfied that the Government's policy in this field is progressive; and it will continue so.
§ Mr. RobertsDoes the right hon. and learned Gentleman, like his predecessors in office, conduct periodic progress examinations with other Government Departments involved in the programme of bilingualism? In particular, will he look at the position in the Inland Revenue Department, where so far very little, or very inadequate, informative and explanatory material in the Welsh language has been issued with regard to the new income tax system that is due to come into force next April?
§ Mr. ThomasI shall certainly look into that matter and I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for bringing it to my attention. I know that an explanatory note on value added tax has just been published in Welsh.