Welsh Language Standards

The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 makes Welsh an official language in Wales. This means it must be treated no less favourably than English.

 

  • Health Boards are subject to the Welsh Language Standards (WLS) and must provide their web content bilingually
  • Health Board Managed GP practices must provide their web content bilingually
  • Independent GP practices are not subject to the WLS but have been subject to the Six Welsh Language Duties since 2019, having previously been exempted. These duties do not require web content to be bilingual but do require signage and health board documents to be provided in bilingual format
  • We assume that in time the WLS will be applied in full to primary care providers. The Active Offer initiative encourages GP practices to publish all public-facing material bilingually and this would include a website.

 

Local Site Administrators must ensure that: 

 

  • The text of each page of your website is available in Welsh
  • Every Welsh language page on your website is fully functional
  • The Welsh language is not treated less favourably than the English language on your website
  • If you have a Welsh language web page that corresponds to an English language web page, you must state clearly on the English language web page that the page is also available in Welsh, and you must provide a direct link to the Welsh page on the corresponding English page.
  • If you produce a document in Welsh and in English (whether separate versions or not), you must not treat any Welsh language version less favourably than you treat the English language version
  • Any form that you make available to the public must be produced in Welsh
  • It is every organisations responsibility to ensure that their users have the correct access level and that anyone who has publish access should be fully aware of the Welsh rules in place

 

Remember, it is your responsibility to make sure any content you create on your English site is also available in Welsh. Any Translation issues can be reported via our Contact Us page.

 

Automatic Corresponding Content- This Plugin has been created in order to help organisations adhere to the Welsh Language Standards and ensure that the equivalent Welsh language pages are created to match all English language content.

Going forward, on publishing a new English Language webpage this would then trigger the creation of an equivalent page on the Welsh Language site; with a site-specific text notification message displaying, warning the user that the full Welsh content now needs to be filled in.