My Lords, Amendment 67 seeks to devolve Welsh language broadcasting and Welsh language media to the National Assembly. There is currently an anomaly in that the Welsh Government have responsibility for and powers relating to the Welsh language, but no powers whatever over S4C or Welsh-language media, which are perhaps the most significant tools in promoting the Welsh language in this day and age. I should perhaps mention that I served on the S4C Authority’s board for three years during the last decade.
The survival of the Welsh language is a miracle, but it is a struggle that has to be perpetually refought and re-won from year to year. The language is important not just for its own sake but because it is the transmitter of our history, folk memory and culture from generation to generation, and a conveyor of our values and experiences as a nation. Welsh belongs to all of Wales—to those who speak it and those who, by accident of geography and history, do not. Its associated culture depends, in part, on language transmission, and its survival as a living part of our identity. It is no coincidence that our national anthem, so much loved by Welsh speakers and non-Welsh speakers alike, concludes with the line:
“O bydded i’r hen iaith barhau”—
“O that the old language should flourish”.
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The Welsh language media are of cultural, economic and linguistic importance to Wales. S4C and its services have endured a painful period of financial instability following last year’s Autumn Statement. The then Chancellor announced a cut in the S4C grant from £6.7 million to £5 million by 2020. The first year of those cuts was reversed, but only the first year. This funding enabled S4C to provide an impressive new service in HD just in time for the 2016 Euros—something I believe the Secretary of State for Wales genuinely welcomed with open arms.
The original intention was that the same level of grant should remain in place until the UK Government’s independent review into the role, governance and funding of S4C was published in 2017. It looks now as if the independent review will not be finalised until after the current financial year comes to an end, which creates uncertainty over the future of S4C’s grant and its ability to maintain the quality and range of its programmes. It is not only the DCMS side of the funding equation that is in doubt: in September, we were told that the BBC Trust intends to freeze S4C’s funding until the
end of the current licence fee agreement in 2022. This was portrayed in the media as a victory for the industry, however it represents a cut in real terms.
The UK Government may have an agenda to cut public funding for broadcasting in general in the long term. That in itself is highly regrettable when one considers the achievements and reputation of the BBC. But if, heaven help us, the BBC disappeared as a public service broadcaster, a whole range of broadcasting—radio, television and the new media outlets—would still remain in the English language. That is not the case for Welsh. Such far-reaching decisions could be a body blow for the prospects of the language surviving and flourishing. Why should such fundamental decisions, critical to our language and culture, rest—perhaps even linger by default—in the hands of government Ministers in the DCMS, who very often do not have any background or feeling for the issues relating to these powers as they will play out in Wales? Why should the people of Wales be bound by decisions made in London regarding the only media platform on which they can access services in their own language?
The Institute of Welsh Affairs and the Wales Governance Centre, in their report The UK’s Changing Union, which was published in 2013, both called for the full responsibility for S4C to be transferred to the National Assembly and Welsh Government. In the other place, the Secretary of State for Wales claimed that devolution of S4C was not included in the Silk commission report’s recommendations and used that as a reason to block my colleague’s amendment. May I correct him today? I am sure that our Minister in this House, having been a member of the Silk commission, will recall the words. The Silk commission concluded:
“In terms of our devolution principles, it is anomalous that the power to fund S4C public service broadcasting lies with the UK Government rather than the Welsh Government. We do not believe that this can be justified against our principles of accountability, subsidiarity and efficiency”.
It recommended that,
“within the framework that the bulk of funding should continue to be met from the licence fee, responsibility for funding the public expenditure element of S4C should be devolved to the National Assembly for Wales”.
The Secretary of State’s misinformation was echoed in the Answer to a Written Question that my colleague Jonathan Edwards MP asked in the other place of the Secretary of State in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This is as unacceptable as it is surprising.
I am not alone in my firm belief that Wales should have full control over a channel that belongs to the Welsh people. The Welsh language media are a central ingredient in our heritage and culture, and it is only right we are granted the entitlement to safeguard their future. I beg to move.