HL Deb 31 July 1975 vol 363 cc1295-6

8.30 p.m.

Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH rose to move, That the Elections (Welsh Forms) Regulations 1975, laid before the House on 22nd July, be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, these Regulations replace and revoke the Elections (Welsh Forms) Regulations 1974 which were approved by your Lordships' House on the 16th December last year, but which were not approved in another place. When I commended the previous Regulations to your Lordships' House, I thought I could safely say that they were uncontroversial. So far as the sub stance of them went, that was undoubtedly true, but when the quality of the Welsh translation was weighed in another place, it was thought in some respects to be lacking in that grace and justness of language with which the Celtic tongue can endow even the most official forms, As a result, all these Welsh versions have been most carefully vetted by a panel of eminent Welsh scholars who were advising my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Wales, and in their revised form they are regarded as being in language as good as it is possible to achieve, given the admitted difficulty of translating the rather specialised language of prescribed electoral forms acceptably as well as accurately.

These Regulations differ only as regards the wording of the Welsh versions from those which were approved by your Lordships' House last year. No fresh amendment of substance has been incorporated. They provide the Welsh versions of approved forms, all of which have been previously prescribed for use in connection with electoral registration and Parliamentary elections. I beg to move.

Moved. That the Elections (Welsh Forms) Regulations 1975, laid before the House on 22nd July, be approved.—(Lord Harris of Greenwich.)

Lord ABERDARE

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Greenwich, for that explanation and admire the speed with which he has turned his attention from sex discrimination to this complicated set of Orders. I have checked all the numbers, but I have not been able to check the text, and I take the noble Lord's word for it that it is in perfect Welsh. May I say that we on this side of the House welcome the Regulations.

On Question, Motion agreed to.

House adjourned at twenty-eight minutes before nine o'clock.