Mick Antoniw MS, Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Last November, as part of my update on The Future of Welsh Law programme, I informed you that we’d taken a major step towards ensuring that users can access Welsh laws in up-to-date form in both languages on legislation.gov.uk. I also promised to keep Members updated on our progress.
Our initial focus has been on bringing the Acts and Measures passed by the Senedd since 2007 fully up to date in both languages. I am pleased to report that nearly 80% of the English language texts, and just over 66% of the Welsh language texts, of primary legislation are now updated. This is significant progress, particularly in respect of the Welsh language texts as none of these had been updated before our project began.
There are over 6,000 Welsh Statutory Instruments, of which about 68% have not been amended and do not require updating. However, changes over many years to the remaining 32% still leaves a substantial amount of editorial work, and in recent weeks work has begun on applying the Welsh language amendments to these texts. We have already tackled about 5% of the amendments that need to be applied but I anticipate it will take a number of years to bring the backlog down.
Our approach to tackling that backlog will be to ensure that the most recently made instruments are kept up to date first, before we work backwards towards the oldest instruments. However, we are also working on the most frequently viewed items of legislation on legislation.gov.uk as well as discrete projects. As an example, updating all of the Acts and Statutory Instruments relating to the “renting homes” legislation is a priority.
I will continue to update Members on the progress of this work, including in the annual report on the programme to improve the accessibility of Welsh law, which will be laid before the Senedd later this year.