§ Mr. RaffanTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he intends to make provision for the use of Welsh in forms relating to the community charge.
§ Mr. Wyn RobertsThe introduction of the community charge provides an excellent opportunity to enhance the use of the Welsh language in local government administration. Under existing legislation district councils are not obliged to provide rate demands in Welsh and, while many choose to do so, others do not.
We propose that, as a minimum, all those liable for the community charge will have a right to receive their community charge demand in Welsh if they require it. District councils who choose to send out demands in English will have to state clearly on that demand that a version in Welsh will be available on request. We will be prescribing the content of both the English and Welsh demands by regulation so there will be no translation burden for local authorities.
We will also be prescribing a bilingual version of the demand which local authorities will be encouraged to adopt. I hope that eventually all authorities will issue bilingual demands as a matter of course. But if they wish, they will be able by resolution of the council to use the English or Welsh versions instead. Even if some councils choose to use the English version of the demand, Welsh speakers in those areas will be able to request a community charge demand in Welsh.
I propose that similar arrangements should apply for the issue of non-domestic rate demands from April 1990.