WELSH LANGUAGE (Hansard, 12 June 1973)

§ The Attorney-General

Under the Welsh Language Act 1967, in any legal proceedings in Wales or Monmouthshire, either Welsh or English may be spoken by any party, witness or other person who desires to use it, subject, in the case of the use of Welsh in any court other than a magistrates' court, to such prior notice as may be prescribed, and any necessary provision for interpretation shall be made accordingly.

About one year ago, in a speech my noble Friend the Lord Chancellor made to the summer meeting of the Magistrates Association at Bangor, in North Wales, he announced that, with the agreement of his colleagues, he had invited Lord Justice Edmund Davies to spend some of his time making a personal study of the working of the Act in actual practice in the Principality and to make suggestions as to how this might be improved.

This study was concluded in March and was of an informal nature, not intended for publication. At my noble Friend's request, however, Lord Justice Edmund Davies has prepared a short summary of recommendations which I have placed in the Library.

In Welsh-speaking areas of Wales it is not at all uncommon for summary trials to be held entirely in Welsh where all concerned so desire it, and this will continue to be the case. In the predominantly English-speaking areas where it may not always be possible to provide Welsh-speaking justices and clerks, it will still be necessary to rely on the ordinary machinery for interpretation. Nothing, of course, can take away from parties, witnesses, or other persons entitled to participate, the right to use the English language if they prefer to do so.

Lord Justice Edmund Davies' main recommendation affects proceedings in the Crown court. This recommendation, which the Government accept, is that, where the parties so desire it and it is practicable to do so, the hearing of proceedings in Welsh should be further facilitated before the Crown court. In order 298W to preserve the principle of equal validity between the two languages and the equally important principle of the random selection of jurors, the only practicable way of achieving this is, as Lord Justice Edmund Davies suggests, the provision of facilities for simultaneous translation. My noble Friend is accordingly arranging for the necessary equipment to be installed in a number of selected Crown court centres. Steps have been taken to recruit and train interpreters with the necessary skill, and experiments in the use of these facilities have been sufficiently successful to justify the installation of permanent equipment. My noble Friend believes that nothing like this has been attempted in legal proceedings in the United Kingdom before, and he sincerely hopes that all concerned will co-operate in making this interesting new experiment a success. When these centres are working, it will be possible for either language to be used at will without interrupting the smooth flow of proceedings.

Obviously, so far as my noble Friend is concerned, it is the quality of the justice administered in our courts which must be his first consideration. But it has always been his intention to give full effect to the principle of equal validity as enshrined in the Welsh Language Act, both in spirit and in letter, and he hopes that the present decision, which is in accordance with Lord Justice Edmund Davies' recommendations, will give satisfaction to those who, consistently with the administration of justice, wish to see a greater use made of Welsh in courts of law.