Rejected petition Make it compulsory that companies create Welsh language packaging and/or labels for store products.
In an effort to promote the Welsh language, it should be required that companies here in Wales create Welsh language packaging as well as English packaging for their products - if not, then provide sticker labels for packaging instead.
This will greatly promote the language as people will be reading it. It also makes sense as Welsh should be an equal language to English - so why is there no Welsh packaging?
More details
For this to work, we could make a required ratio of packaging in Welsh and English, for instance, 3 in 10 boxes for products in store (as 3 in 10 people speak Welsh here in Wales); alternatively, we could do it by a county basis (7 in 10 boxes in Gwynedd being Welsh, 3 in 10 boxes in Powys being Welsh, etc.)
Having Welsh packaging in stores will encourage language immersion into Welsh (with food boxes or DVD covers being in Welsh, people can label them to know learn words); this can make it easier for people to understand words - thus contributing to passive learning, bi-literacy and bilingualism - as they’ll see them often.
References of interest:
* https://theconversation.com/wales-wants-to-make-the-welsh-language-part-of-every-lesson-under-new-curriculum-120312 (July 2019 Conversation Article on Welsh Language Immersion)
* Stats Wales (Annual Population Survey - Ability to speak Welsh by local authority and year; December, 2019)
* Welsh Language Act 1993 (Equal language right)
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the Senedd or Welsh Government is not responsible for.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 establishes the extent of the Senedd’s power to make new laws and amend existing law (also known as legislative competence). Schedules 7A and 7B of the 2006 Act set out the issues which are ‘restricted’ or ‘reserved’ - i.e. areas where the UK Parliament, not the Senedd, can legislate.
Powers in relation to ‘Product labelling’ are reserved to the UK Parliament by under Schedule 7A of the 2006 Act. This also sets out that the Senedd has some powers in relation to labelling of food, food products and food contact materials. However, as it stands, legislation passed by the Senedd must also be compatible with EU law. Article 15 of EU Regulation No.1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers requires that Member States can only require food labelling to be in one of the official languages of the EU. These do not include Welsh.
As a result, it is not currently possible for the Senedd to take the action called for in the petition. It is possible that this position may change after the UK has left the European Union depending on agreements reached with the EU and within the UK.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards
Rejected petitions are published in the language in which they were submitted