§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what level of scrutiny was conducted in relation to the assessment of(a) Ulster Scots, (b) Lallands, (c) Northern Irish Gaelic and (d) Cornish before considering whether each should be specified by the Government under the provisions of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. [44242]
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Charter does not set out what, if any, kind of scrutiny should be undertaken before specifying a language under its provisions. In the case of the UK, HMG has taken advice from the relevant Administrations of the UK on which languages to specify.
(a) Scots has had a presence in the island of Ireland for approximately four centuries. Ulster Scots ("Ullans") is defined in the North/South Co-operation (Implementation Bodies) Northern Ireland Order 1999 as
the variety of the Scots language traditionally found in parts of Northern Ireland and Donegal".Ministers decided that this qualified it for specification under the terms of the Charter.(b) The Scots language has a long history and many points of difference from standard English. In the light of these considerations, Ministers decided that it should be considered a language and thus be covered by Part II of the Charter.
(c) Irish (Gaeilge) has been spoken throughout the island of Ireland for at least two millennia. The 1991 Census identified 142,003 people in Northern Ireland (9.4 per cent. of the population) who claimed competence in the language. Ministers decided that this qualified it for specification under the terms of the Charter.
(d) The Government office for the south-west commissioned an independent study in order to provide a sound factual basis for informing HMG's on-going assessment of its position on Cornish in relation to the Charter.