Equality Bill [Lords]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman, who has anticipated my next remarks. Another unique point about Wales is that we will have a commissioner for older people, and similar considerations to those that I have discussed will apply to how the commission works with them. The last report that I received indicates that the Children’s Commissioner for Wales has taken 600 cases, which represents a great amount of work and a great amount of experience. I seek an assurance that the commission will be able to take account of the experience that the Children’s Commissioner for Wales has built up. Finally, I shall turn to Welsh language issues, which the Bill does not address—probably rightly. Welsh language equality issues have not generally been seen as equality issues, although they have been seen in lots of other ways, but there is some profit to be had in considering those points from a rights-based standpoint. It is useful for us to examine how the commission will work in Wales in respect of the Welsh language, because there is currently such confusion about the role of the Welsh Language Board, the nature and timing of any change to its functions, which will be brought into Welsh Assembly Government, and the regulatory function of the new office of the dyfarnwr—the adjudicator—which will retain the residual statutory powers of the Welsh Language Board to review Welsh language schemes. I have drawn those matters to the Minister’s attention because the Welsh Language Act 1993 states that Welsh and English are to be treated on the basis of equality, which is the magic word. That provision is subject to the qualification that equality is to be applied only where it is reasonable, appropriate and practical, so it is not total equality. The Bill discusses equality, but it does not address language equality in Wales, although it might have done so. Perhaps future legislation will address the matter, because if the Wales Bill, which will come before this House, is enacted, it will allow the Welsh Assembly to pass legislation or Orders in Council. As I have said, it is unsurprising that Welsh language issues have not been addressed on a rights basis in the past. In some ways, Welsh is not a minority language—it has legal status and such languages are referred to elsewhere as proper languages. It is not an equal language or the majority language, but it is the proper language for Wales, which is similar to some of the languages used on the Iberian peninsula. In closing, I shall raise the practical question of providing goods, facilities and services. Provision through the medium of Welsh has not been addressed properly in the past, which has led to some people who want goods, facilities and services through the medium of Welsh not being able to access them. That matter must be addressed, perhaps not in this Bill, but certainly in any further legislation that the Welsh Assembly Government or the Welsh Assembly might wish to pass in the future.