Northern Ireland Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure: Linguistic Diversity Branch

HL Deb 28 January 2003 vol 643 c141WA

Lord Laird

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the Linguistic Diversity Branch of the Northern Ireland Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, has given advice to local authorities on the use of minority languages; and if so whether the advice treated Irish and Ulster-Scots equally. [HL954]

Lord Williams of Mostyn

The Linguistic Diversity Branch is an administrative unit of the Northern Ireland Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL). The remit of DCAL includes advising the Northern Ireland departments on their obligations in respect of minority languages, in the context of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Belfast Agreement. The department has also responded to relevant requests for information from other interested parties, including representatives from individual district councils. The principal source of advice for district councils is however the Department of the Environment. The advice has regard to the provisions of the charter in relation to Irish and Ulster-Scots.