The Scottish Languages Act: opportunities and challenges

The Scottish Languages Act passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament this week is the most important language legislation for Gaelic in twenty years and the first ever for the Scots language. The Act is a complex, incrementalist measure that authorises a range of legal mechanisms, strategies, standards, regulations and guidance documents concerning language development and education matters. Its full practical significance will only become clear over time as these various instruments are published and come into effect. But most of the obligations it imposes are framed in general terms, it creates no concrete language rights, and there will be no independent language commissioner to ensure effective implementation and compliance. 

The Act [see here] consists mainly of a series of amendments to the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, the Education (Scotland) Act 2016 and other acts relating to education. 33 of its sections deal with Gaelic and 14 with Scots, a reflection of the much more developed legal and policy framework for Gaelic up to now. Many of these changes are very specific and somewhat difficult to understand without a knowledge of the existing statutory and policy structures and mechanisms. The overall effect of the Act is to introduce additional layers of formal regulation and increase administrative complexity. 

The legislation was strengthened in numerous respects as it went through the parliamentary process so that the bill as enacted is a significant improvement over the original version. Although Gaelic and Scots often attract visceral opposition in the wider public domain in Scotland, the bill received support from across the political spectrum in the Parliament and members from each of the opposition parties introduced supportive amendments to address different issues. At the same time, in the final parliamentary debate the opposition parties expressed reservations as to how effective the bill would be in tackling the key challenges facing Gaelic, especially in island communities where the language remains relatively widely spoken.

Language legislation plays an important but limited role in language policy. By its nature, language legislation involves establishing high-level, overarching principles and creating structures, mechanisms or procedures that set the overall framework for policy over the medium and long term. It cannot deal with micro-level issues and key operational matters such as funding and budgets. Much public discussion of Gaelic in recent years has connected the precarious position of the language to pressing socio-economic challenges facing rural and island communities in terms of housing, infrastructure, connectivity and employment. Despite the importance of these issues, it is difficult for legislation – especially language legislation – to address them directly. 

Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Scottish Government

The main changes put in place by the Act are to move certain powers from the language quango Bòrd na Gàidhlig to the Scottish Government, to broaden the Government’s and public authorities’ obligations in relation to Gaelic (especially in terms of education), to allow for the designation of new ‘areas of linguistic significance’ for Gaelic, and to create new obligations in relation to Scots in education. Both Gaelic and Scots are now formally declared to have official status in Scotland, but this has no concrete practical effect and is essentially symbolic. 

Where the Gaelic Language Act of 2005 required Bòrd na Gàidhlig to prepare a National Gaelic Language Plan every five years, the new Act passes this responsibility to the Scottish Government and gives it the new name of ‘national Gaelic language strategy’. This is a welcome move, as the strategy will have more weight when issued by the Government than a small public body with very limited powers. The strategy will have to give effect to the principle that Gaelic and English should be accorded equal respect (a principle established in the 2005 Act), and must set out objectives and impose targets in relation to promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of Gaelic. 

The key test will be whether these new national Gaelic language strategies prove to be bolder or more imaginative than the current and previous National Gaelic Language Plans, which have become progressively less ambitious with each iteration. The Welsh Government’s national plan for Welsh published in 2017 announced a headline goal of recording one million Welsh speakers by 2050, roughly a 90% increase. A comparable ambition for Scotland might be to reach 125,000 Gaelic speakers, up from the current 70,000 (and 59,000 in 2011). To achieve this would require resolute and coordinated action over time, with a strength and breadth of commitment significantly greater than anything seen up to now.

The bill also authorises – and in some cases requires – the Scottish Government to issue several different kinds of standards, regulations and guidance relating to promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of Gaelic. Some of these will be applicable to all public bodies and some only to education authorities. But it is unclear whether and when these regulatory instruments will appear and more importantly, what they will actually require of the bodies in question. 

It seems unlikely that the Gaelic standards will look much like those adopted for Welsh under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, which are highly specific and regulate the activities of public bodies in considerable detail. In relation to service delivery, for example, the Welsh regulations set out 41 different standards that require public bodies to operate bilingually in connection with correspondence, telephone calls, meetings, public events, publicity and advertising, websites, online services and social media and corporate identity. No public body in Scotland, even in the Western Isles, currently provides this level of bilingual service, and for many it would be almost impossible to do so. The Gaelic language plans approved under the 2005 Act often involve almost no service provision at all, and thus do not provide a solid foundation that might be built upon.

The bill also imposes broad duties on the Scottish Government and public bodies in relation to Gaelic, but these are phrased in very general terms which would make it difficult to demonstrate that they had not been followed. For example, the Government must ‘have regard’ to the national Gaelic language strategy in making policies and in exercising its functions more generally, as must public bodies in exercising their functions. Public bodies now have a general duty to ‘have regard to promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of the Gaelic language’ and ‘developing and encouraging Gaelic culture’, and Scottish Government guidance on this duty must include the principle of ‘equal respect’ for Gaelic and English. Bòrd na Gàidhlig is charged with monitoring compliance with these obligations.

Enforcement and the lack of a language commissioner

A key requirement of the 2005 Act is that public bodies must prepare Gaelic language plans if notified to do so by Bòrd na Gàidhlig. Approximately 60 bodies now have such plans, including almost all local authorities. The new Act maintains the current system by which Bòrd na Gàidhlig is given an uncomfortable mixture of roles, expected both to work with public authorities in shaping their Gaelic language plans and then to monitor and enforce them. The Bòrd also awards grants to public bodies (£520,000 per year) to assist plan implementation.

Under the Act, the guidance on these language plans will now be issued by the Government rather than the Bòrd. This will increase the status of the guidance, but there can be no guarantee that its terms will be any more stringent, although the principle of equal respect for Gaelic and English will now be embedded here as well. Many of the Gaelic language plans that have been approved so far have had relatively little impact. Stronger plans and more effective implementation will be needed.

The Bòrd’s only power involving enforcement is the ability to report failures to implement language plans to the Government to take enforcement action. A slight tightening of this section requires the Government to ‘direct the authority in question to implement any or all of the measures in its Gaelic language plan’ – but only ‘if they consider it necessary or expedient to do so’. The Policy Memorandum prepared in connection with the Bill notes that although ‘the direction making power is an important lever in the overall structure’, ‘it would […] be intended to be used infrequently and as a last resort’.

In recent years, minority languages in many different jurisdictions, including Wales, Ireland and now Northern Ireland, have benefited from a language commissioner – an independent executive officer charged with oversight and enforcement of language legislation and other obligations on the authorities. Unfortunately, proposals for a Gaelic language commissioner were rejected both at the consultation stage and during the parliamentary process, in part because of a perception among policy-makers that Scotland already has enough commissioners (eight at present, with a further six proposed). A parliamentary review has now recommended against creating additional commissioners. Given that it may be another twenty years before the next Gaelic act, it is regrettable that a language commissioner should be ruled out because of bad timing rather than any substantive policy reason. 

The 2025 Act adds a new provision to the 2005 Act giving the Scottish Government the power to compel public bodies to comply with their various duties relating to Gaelic. This is potentially useful, particularly as complaints can be brought by members of the public and do not have to go through Bòrd na Gàidhlig, but there remains a risk that monitoring and enforcement of the various duties and obligations created by the Act will not be sufficiently vigorous and independent.

‘Areas of linguistic significance’

The most innovative section of the bill is a new system by which particular parts of the country can be designated as ‘areas of linguistic significance’. This main objective here is to address the seriously weakening position of Gaelic in traditional rural communities, while also supporting Gaelic development across Scotland, especially in urban areas with substantial numbers of Gaelic speakers. There are a number of difficulties with the system set out in the Act, however. 

First, the definition of areas that may be eligible for this designation is very expansive. It is primarily aimed at areas with a relatively high density of people with Gaelic skills, but the threshold is set at only 20% (and this figure includes those who can only read, write or understand Gaelic but not actually speak it). Barely a quarter of those with Gaelic skills live in such areas, the overwhelming majority of them in the Western Isles and Skye. It is also unclear how large the designated areas might be. All of the Eilean Siar council area satisfies the 20% criterion, but would one, five or twelve or more areas be designated in the different island communities? These matters will only become clearer when the relevant guidance is issued.

The term ‘areas of linguistic significance’ also includes other places with lower density which are ‘historically connected with the use of Gaelic’, ‘in which teaching and learning by means of the Gaelic language is provided’, or ‘in which significant activity relating to the Gaelic language or Gaelic culture takes place’. This could potentially cover pretty much all of Scotland, although it would probably be best suited to cities such as Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh or towns like Oban or Fort William. This element of the bill is important; as the Policy Memorandum expresses it, ‘the preferred policy priority was that Gaelic was a language for all of Scotland and an approach should be taken that supported Gaelic both in urban environments and in island communities’.

Second, the identification of potential ‘areas of linguistic significance’ is left to local authorities, whose application must then be approved by the Scottish Government. It is not clear why this approach has been chosen. Local authorities have not had a role in strategic planning for Gaelic up to now, and few of them can be said to have demonstrated particular understanding or energy in relation to Gaelic. An amendment (unfortunately poorly worded) that would have given a role to local community groups in the process was rejected.

Third and most important, the Act deals only with the procedure for designating ‘areas of linguistic significance’ rather than the possible consequences of such designation – what obligations and/or benefits might follow. Again, clarification will only come with the issuance of relevant guidance that addresses all the different kinds of areas eligible for designation. Those who have pushed for greater support for rural Gaelic communities have mainly been concerned with securing additional funding – mostly for socio-economic development rather than language development per se – but resourcing will inevitably depend on the vagaries of policy decisions over time. Indeed, funding could be increased immediately without designation as an ‘area of linguistic significance’ or other regulation. 

The ‘areas of linguistic significance’ system appears to draw inspiration from recent policy proposals in Wales and from the Gaeltacht Act 2012 in Ireland, which establishes a system of Gaeltacht Language Planning Areas, ‘Gaeltacht Service Towns’ and designated ‘Irish Language Networks’ outside the Gaeltacht. A designated local organisation in each of these areas, towns or network communities must prepare and implement a language plan. Language plans have now been approved in 26 local language planning areas in the Gaeltacht, ten Gaeltacht Service Towns and five Irish Language Networks. Each of the Gaeltacht language planning areas has a development budget and a dedicated language planning officer, but these arrangements are not commanded by the legislation itself.  The annual budget for this scheme currently stands at £3.3 million, provided by the development agency Údarás na Gaeltachta; additional funding for the Gaeltacht Service Towns and Irish Language Networks comes from the Irish Government. Although Irish language advocates view this funding as inadequate, it is difficult to imagine that support for development work in Scotland’s ‘areas of linguistic significance’ will receive comparable levels of resource.

As the Languages Bill was going through Parliament a process of community language planning was already under way. The National Gaelic Language Plan 2023-28 states that ‘Community Gaelic Plans will be developed for 3 key Gaelic Communities with support and Guidance prepared and available for other communities by 2028’. It remains to be seen how this community planning process will articulate with the new statutory ‘areas of linguistic significance’ system.

Education reforms

The Act imposes broad new duties on the Scottish Government and education authorities to ‘promote, facilitate and support’ Gaelic-medium education (GME) and Gaelic learners’ education. In addition, education authorities will be required to make provision for Gaelic as part of their general duty to secure ‘adequate and efficient provision of school education’. These obligations will be clarified in more detailed regulations and guidance, to be issued by the Government rather than Bòrd na Gàidhlig, as had previously been the case.

These changes are by no means insignificant, but it would probably be optimistic to expect that the Act will bring about dramatic change in the position of Gaelic in the Scottish education system. It is worth remembering how minimal the current provision is. Only 0.8% of Scottish school pupils receive GME and only 0.9% receive Gaelic learners’ education (GLE). Even in the Highland Council area only 5.4% receive GME and only 11% receive GLE. 96% of Scottish primary schools and 90% of secondary schools do not offer Gaelic, and a third of local authorities make no provision for Gaelic in any of their schools. With the new Act, how different will things look in, say, ten years’ time?

The new Act makes some noticeable improvements in the system for requesting GME, but it does not create a enforceable right to GME, a long-standing demand of Gaelic campaigners. The Education (Scotland) Act 2016 created a fairly cumbersome two-stage process that local authorities must follow when deciding if there is sufficient demand to establish primary GME. This system has now been simplified and streamlined, and extended to cover early learning and childcare as well.

Some of the most pressing issues involve access to GME in areas where some provision is already offered, not where parents are seeking to have it established in the first place. In Glasgow in recent years, the council has imposed a cap on places in primary GME, causing dozens of children to be turned away each year. On the very day that the bill was passed, the BBC reported on how a child had been denied a place at the Gaelic nursery in Kilmarnock. The new Act will not address such situations.

In Canada, by comparison, there is a constitutional right to publicly funded English or French-medium education ‘when numbers warrant’, which may extend to having a dedicated English- or French-medium school. 

The conventional, well-worn argument against establishing such a right to GME is that it would be impossible to implement given the shortage of Gaelic teachers. But there has never been a coordinated, high-level effort at workforce planning and development that was calculated to transform this situation. Gaelic education has never really been prioritised by the Government, by local authorities or by teacher education providers, but the ‘stick’ of an enforceable right could serve to focus minds.

The Act also creates a new mechanism concerning the creation of dedicated Gaelic primary schools. Other than in Glasgow, which will shortly open its fourth Gaelic primary, there has been very little progress on this front in recent years. There are only four Gaelic schools outside Glasgow (in Edinburgh, Inverness, Fort William and Portree) and no new schools have opened since 2018. 

Under the new Act, local authorities will be required to conduct an evaluation of whether it would be ‘viable’ to open a Gaelic school. While these provisions should be useful, there appears to be sufficient ‘wiggle room’ in the legislation that may allow local authorities to avoid opening schools by claiming that they lack the funds or that teacher recruitment would be too difficult. In Oban, the council has refused to establish a dedicated Gaelic school despite clear demand from parents, and in Edinburgh the council has failed to find a suitable site for a Gaelic secondary school and, in consequence, declined to establish a second Gaelic primary. It is not clear that the new Act would resolve difficulties of this kind. 

Provision for Scots

The part of the Act dealing with Scots is significant, most obviously because there has been no legislative provision for the language at all up to now, and relatively little policy support of any kind. Alongside the declaration of official status for Scots, the Scottish Government will be required to prepare a Scots language strategy and the Government and other public authorities must have regard to the Scots language strategy in exercising their functions. The Government is also authorised to give guidance to relevant public authorities relating to promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of the Scots language and developing and encouraging Scots culture. Both the Government and education authorities are required to promote, facilitate and support Scots language education in schools. Finally, the Government is authorised to issue regulations and give guidance to education authorities in relation to Scots language education.

These provisions in the bill track those for Gaelic to a considerable extent, but the overall policy framework is much less robust. Most obviously, no agency comparable to Bòrd na Gàidhlig is to be established, no system of ‘areas of linguistic significance’ is proposed, there is no requirement for public bodies to prepare Scots language plans, there are no provisions concerning Scots-medium education (which has never been offered anywhere in Scotland), and no enforcement powers are specified. At the final debate on the bill, an amendment to grant Scots and English ‘equal respect’ (which Gaelic has enjoyed since 2005) was withdrawn.  It took decades for the Gaelic policy infrastructure to be built, however, and the current Act can thus be understood as an important foundational measure.

The status of British Sign Language

It is somewhat surprising that Scotland’s other autochthonous minority language, British Sign Language was not addressed in the Act, particularly given that it already has a measure of official status by virtue of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015, which requires the Scottish Government to prepare a National BSL Plan and various public bodies to prepare their own BSL plans. It would not have been difficult to add BSL to the official languages mentioned in the Act on a similar basis to Gaelic and Scots. The issue might be addressed in the next session of Parliament as part of a wider review of the 2015 Act and its implementation.   

Provision for other community languages in Scotland

The SNP manifesto for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election stated that the Scottish Languages Bill would not only deal with Gaelic and Scots but also ‘recognise […] that Scotland is a multilingual society’. In the event, the Act gave no attention to other languages spoken in Scotland, most notably Polish, Urdu, Punjabi and Chinese languages. It is not obvious that legislation is an important priority in relation to these languages; current provision, most importantly in relation to education, is minimal but legislation may not be the answer at this stage. Nevertheless, it would be appropriate for the Government (probably after the 2026 election) to conduct a major policy review and make a clear commitment to improve provision and support.

Conclusion

The Scottish Languages Act clearly has significant potential for improving provision for Gaelic and Scots, but almost everything will depend on the vigour with which it is implemented and the details of the various standards, regulations and guidance documents that it authorises. This will require ongoing close attention from language organisations and the wider language communities. But legislation is only part of the overall language policy framework, and resolute action is needed at multiple levels and on multiple fronts.