Government Response: The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Merit Scrutiny point 1: The Welsh Government is committed to increasing the number of Explanatory Memoranda and Regulatory Impact Assessments for Statutory Instruments that are laid bilingually before the Senedd. Standing order 15.4 of the Senedd requires all documents to be laid bilingually so far as is appropriate in the circumstances and reasonably practicable, and Standard 47 of the Welsh Language Standards (the statutory duties imposed on the Welsh Government by the Welsh Language Commissioner) requires us to consider the subject matter and the anticipated audience of certain documents to prioritise their translation. Under guidance provided by the Commissioner’s office (in their Code of Practice on the Welsh Language Standards (No. 1) Regulations 2015), in prioritising these documents for translation at this time we considered issues such as whether the Regulations related to issues affecting the Welsh language directly, whether the Regulations were of great interest to Welsh speaking groups in particular, and whether a high proportion of the documents’ audience would be Welsh speaking. As these Regulations apply mainly to people from outside the UK, and are unlikely to affect Welsh speakers, they have not been deemed a priority for translation at this time.

The Committee will note that the Welsh Government will produce explanatory memoranda to Welsh subordinate legislation bilingually going forward, as confirmed by the Permanent Secretary in the Welsh Government’s letter of 13 January 2023.