The Scottish Parliament and Gaelic public policy
The re-convening of the Scottish Parliament was a brand new opportunity for the creation of policies to cater for Scottish interests, and in the spirit of a new Scotland the hope among the Gaelic community was that devolution would bring about a new era of policy-making to protect and enhance Gaelic’s status in modern Scottish society.
This chapter outlines the progression of efforts to legislate for Gaelic from 1980 through to the present day, whilst evaluating the impact that the devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament made to those efforts.
It will also focus on the Gaelic Language Act 2005 and discuss the extent to which the Act delivers on the Commun na Gàidhlig’s aim of “secure status” for Gaelic as envisioned at the dawn of devolution.
Finally, the chapter will discuss the issue of funding for Gaelic institutions and how legislative action has impacted upon funding levels whilst explaining the role in which the UK Government has played in Gaelic’s post-devolution position.
Gaelic legislation pre-devolution
Attempts to legislate for Gaelic long predate the Scottish Parliament, although the successes of bills aimed at a very small minority of the British population were understandably more limited within the UK Parliament.
The Education (Scotland) Act of 1980 was to provide the basis for teaching Gaelic in Gaelic-speaking areas but the committee considering the bill dismissed these provisions “by nine votes to six”. (Caimbeul, 2000: 55)
A 1980 bill introduced by the MP for the Western Isles, the SNP’s Donald Stewart, was debated and included provisions to officially designate Gaelic-speaking areas and that “anyone so wishing would have the right to use the language in legal proceedings”, but it did not come to a vote due to a filibuster by a Welsh-speaking Conservative MP, Thomas Hooson. (Caimbeul, 2000: 54-55; Dunbar, 2005: 466)
A breakthrough came however in 1984 when “the Scottish Office established Comunn na Gàidhlig (CnaG)… to promote Gaelic language and culture and coordinate language policy”. (Glen, 2010: 48) CnaG became a fundamental pressure group in lobbying politicians for legislative change on behalf of the Gaelic community and quickly became successful.
The ubiquitous Gaelic road signs were first permitted in legislation by the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984 and the National Heritage (Scotland) Act of 1985 “permits financial support to be given to organisations for the promotion of the Gaelic language and culture.” (Dunbar, 2005: 470)
Through successful lobbying by CnaG at Westminster, Gaelic-medium Education was established in 1985 and was further supported in 1986 with the passage of The Grants for Gaelic Language Education (Scotland) Act which funded “projects aimed at teaching Gaelic.” (Glen, 2010: 48)
CnaG was also instrumental in advancing the cause of Gaelic broadcasting, which resulted in the “establishment of the Gaelic Television Fund…in 1992 for Gaelic broadcasting under the 1990 Broadcasting Act”, giving the first legislative basis for a protected Gaelic broadcasting service as well as a major boost in funding. (MacLeod, 2008: 100)
These measures amounted to a piecemeal approach though, with Gaelic being a very marginal part of legislative consideration. Most of the policy provision made for Gaelic in the pre-devolution era was as a corollary to existing legislation “and therefore did not represent a comprehensive approach to protecting the Gaelic language”. (Glen, 2010: 48)
What can be observed though is that pre-devolution legislation has created a large section of the institutional framework through which Gaelic education, broadcasting and promotion exists today, “although they have been extended” and entrenched by further action since 1999. (MacLeod, 2008: 100)
The Scottish Parliament as an instrument for Gaelic development
The creation of the Scottish Parliament was widely recognised as a means through which Scottish political parties could bring Scottish solutions to Scottish problems. The campaign for a new Scottish Parliament throughout the late 1980s and 1990s capitalised upon a “growing sense of Scottish identity” and was hailed as an opportunity to “put in place a new sort of democracy in Scotland, closer to the people and more in tune with Scottish needs” by future First Minister Henry McLeish. (Brown, 2000: 543-550)
Various institutional factors of the Scottish Parliament’s creation created an environment more conducive to producing Gaelic-focussed legislation. The semi-proportional Additional Member electoral system used in Scottish Parliament elections improved “the representative nature of the Parliament” (ibid.: 551), which ensures the concerns of minorities are considered more thoroughly. The devolution of “low politics” elements such as “social policy, transport and the like” also meant that the Scottish Parliament would have more focus upon issues that more closely affect people’s day-to-day lives. (Bulpitt in Cairney & McGarvey, 2013: 6-7) The ability of the Scottish Parliament to create Non-Departmental Public Bodies was also key, as these “new agencies, civic institutions, special purpose bodies [such as Bòrd na Gàidhlig] and the like are becoming the new arenas of Scottish public service delivery” and form a more engaged governance that deals more closely with specific concerns. (Cairney & McGarvey, 2013: 147, parenthesis my own)
Therefore, the Scottish Parliament could scarcely have been better conceived as a vehicle through which Gaelic legislation could be introduced, debated, consulted upon, passed and ultimately implemented.
As such, the hope of the Gaelic community prior to the Scottish Parliament being re-convened was that the ongoing progress for Gaelic could be maintained and enhanced. This was particularly articulated by Comunn na Gàidhlig’s “Secure Status” document published that year which was subsequently developed into a draft Gaelic Language Act in 1999.
This draft act contained some of the fundamental principles that ultimately formed the basis of the Gaelic Language Act 2005, including “an expression of the principle of equal validity for Gaelic and English in Scotland”; “an advisory body created… which is appointed by and answerable to the Scottish Executive” and “a body… which would have professional expertise with respect to the preparation of Gaelic language plans.” (CnaG, 1999: 1-9)
Scotland’s political parties engaged positively with CnaG’s proposals and created a belief that “the aspirations of the Gaelic community” could be realised by the new politics that devolution could bring. (Caimbeul, 2000: 64-65; CnaG, 1998: 6)
The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005
Undoubtedly the most important event for Gaelic in the devolution era has been the passage of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act in 2005. The Act can be said to have been a “significant step forward in legitimising the maintenance of Gaelic in Scotland, and providing a legal framework for its development” and has created an institutional recognition of Gaelic that has resulted in it being better funded than ever before. (MacLeod, 2008: 112)
The Act was modelled after similar language planning legislation enacted for other Celtic languages, most notably the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Official Language Act 2003 in Ireland, which afforded the languages far more legal power and created institutions to protect them. (McLeod, 2005: 21-22)
In-keeping with Celtic precedent, the Act’s main provision was putting the recently established Bòrd na Gàidhlig on a statutory footing, thus fulfilling the manifesto commitment of the Liberal Democrats from the 2003 election. (Dunbar, 2005: 472) This gave the Bòrd the power to implement policy for the Gaelic language independently of the Government which marked a paradigm shift in the way Gaelic-related issues were to be addressed.
The most powerful function given to Bòrd na Gàidhlig by the Gaelic Act was the ability to demand public authorities to produce a Gaelic Language Plan for their organisation to provide services in the language. (MacLeod, 2008: 110) This allows Gaelic’s presence within public life to be strengthened and institutionalised and ultimately means that more services are available in the language across the country, which is important in advancing Gaelic’s status in Scotland.
This function is undermined, however, by the inability of Bòrd na Gàidhlig to demand enforcement of the Plans in the way that is afforded to the Language Commissioner roles in both Wales and Ireland. (Glen, 2010: 49; McLeod, 2014b: 7) The Scottish Government is ultimately the body that rules whether public authorities are meeting up to their obligations under the Gaelic Act. Without the oversight of a Commissioner, as was originally suggested in CnaG’s 1999 Draft Language Act (1999: 9), the provisions of the Gaelic Act with regards to language plans are significantly weaker and do not effectively secure Gaelic’s role within public life.
The “Act was supported by all political parties in the Parliament” and passed unanimously. (Paterson et al., 2014: 430) However, that cross-party support does not reflect a significant belief in the Gaelic community that the Act was not as strong as it could have been and failed in its’ ultimate goals of securing Gaelic’s future, with the legislation being “weak in comparison to language legislation in [other] jurisdictions.” (McLeod, 2014b: 6) Responses to the Executive’s consultation on the bill drew “more than 3,000 submissions… then the largest number for any legislative consultation since devolution” but despite comments being “largely negative”, the legislation was not majorly altered to endow stronger powers to Bòrd na Gàidhlig. (McLeod, 2005: 21)
The weakness of the Gaelic Act is most apparent in that it gives Gaelic speakers themselves no further rights to use their language than they had already. (Dunbar, 2005: 478; McLeod, 2014b: 7) This is in spite of pressure from CnaG and “quite widespread willingness to accord rights” to it from the Scottish public at-large. (Paterson et al., 2014: 446) The Act is thought to have excluded such provision because the “Scottish Executive was concerned that this might allow claims for exclusive Gaelic use in all circumstances” (Glen, 2010: 49), which would have proven far more costly than the eventual compromise of “equal respect” status and Bòrd na Gàidhlig enforcement through language plans.
Therefore, judging the Gaelic Act from eleven years on suggests that while it provided a turning point for the language’s position in Scottish governance and society it failed to fully match the aspirations of the Gaelic community by providing it the “secure status” it needs to survive. It was an important step in Gaelic’s legislative journey, particularly in the context of what went before it, but not by any means a final one.
Gaelic in UK and Scottish post-devolution legislation
Despite the perceived weakness of the Gaelic Act, however, there have been very few significant measures to enshrine support for Gaelic in legislation. The only notable exception to this period of neglect was the inclusion of a Gaelic-medium section in the Education (Scotland) Act 2016 whereby “education [authorities] must decide to secure the provision of GMPE” (Gaelic-medium Primary Education) unless it is deemed unreasonable against objective criteria outlined in the Act. (Scottish Parliament, 2016) While falling short of the establishment of a right to Gaelic-medium Education, this is an important step that makes accessing it much easier for parents and children outwith the Gàidhealtachd. This, however, represents minimal progress for the language since the Gaelic Act of 2005, with the nine years of SNP Government providing very little in the way of real progress, contrary to what the party’s image as “owners” of the Gaelic issue would suggest.
Throughout the devolution era, the UK Government has phased out its involvement in Gaelic language policy, leaving the issue to the Scottish Government and Parliament instead.
As the competency of broadcasting remained reserved to the UK Parliament under the 1998 Scotland Act, the UK Government was still responsible for legislation to further Gaelic broadcasting, which had become one of the central institutions of the community.
The UK Government signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2000 and ratified it in 2001, which required that the Government “provides for special measures of support to such ‘traditional’ or ‘autochthonous’ linguistic communities” such as Gaelic, Welsh and Manx. (Dunbar, 2002: 102)
Provisions of this charter required national governments to provide a level of service to these languages, and these have become particularly important and relevant to Gaelic. One such provision was:
“to encourage and/or facilitate the creation of at least one radio station and one television channel in the regional or minority languages” (Moring & Dunbar, 2008: 38)
A Committee of Experts was tasked with evaluating the UK Government’s existing efforts towards Gaelic in relation to this objective and reported that:
“In the case of Gaelic radio broadcasting, the Committee of Experts considered that the undertaking was only partly fulfilled, and in respect of television, they found that it was not fulfilled”. (ibid.)
The Committee made several suggestions including ensuring that radio coverage was improved so that all areas of Scotland could receive Radio nan Gàidheal, which was deemed sufficient to bring the radio service up to standard.
However, for television the experts deemed that the existing coverage of Gaelic delivered by the BBC and STV was not sufficient and that “UK legislation dealing with broadcasting matters… did ‘not expressly provide for the promotion or establishment of a Gaelic TV channel”. (ibid.: 39) Therefore they recommended that:
“compliance… requires more than simply creating a legal framework within which a channel can exist; it requires positive action (including where necessary funding)”. (ibid.)
This created a legal impetus, building upon existing social pressure, for a new Communications Act which was passed in 2003 to create Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig, now known as MG Alba, which would go on to facilitate the establishment of the BBC Alba digital television channel. This marked a major advance for Gaelic broadcasting and the language’s visibility across Scotland, and it is notable that this was set in motion by the UK Government and delivered largely by funding from the Scottish Government.
One of the developments of the Scotland Act 2012, which provided more powers for the Scottish Parliament on the recommendation of the Calman Commission, was that while broadcasting remained a matter reserved for the UK Parliament that the “Scottish (not UK) Government” would now be “responsible for payments to the Gaelic Broadcasting Fund.” (Cairney & McGarvey, 2013: 247)
This marked the beginning of the final withdrawal of the UK Government from funding the Gaelic language, which was completed in the Spending Review of Autumn 2015 as the Conservative Government cut their final £1 million of support for MG Alba. This gesture comes with “cultural and political symbolism” (Crichton, 2015) in retracting the UK Government’s support of Gaelic, which was instrumental in forming the broadcasting system that we have today. Ultimately, the Scottish Government announced that they would recompense MG Alba for the funding lost by adding an additional £1 million to their support for the organisation. (BBC News, 2016) This furthers the scenario whereby the Scottish Government is now funding Gaelic broadcasting but with no legislative oversight from the Scottish Parliament, creating a weakness of accountability for MG Alba.
The progression of Gaelic funding
In considering the progress made in legislating for Gaelic it is also helpful to understand the legal delivery mechanism, particularly in the way Gaelic projects have been funded.
The graph below shows and itemises UK and Scottish Government expenditure on Gaelic related projects from 1979 to 2016, with the solid vertical line indicating the point of devolution:
Figure 1. Scottish Office/Scottish Executive/Scottish Government funding for Gaelic 1979-2016. (Scottish Executive, 2000: 4; Scottish Government, 2016)
Spending on Gaelic was minimal until the Broadcasting Act 1990 was passed by the Conservative Government contributing £8 million towards the creation of a Gaelic Broadcasting Fund which assured the continuation of Gaelic programming on the BBC and support of the fledgling Radio nan Gàidheal service. (Cormack, 1995: 277)
The graph shows that the levels of funding for Gaelic have risen almost continuously through the post-devolution era, with a significant boost of 43% in the financial year following the passage of the Gaelic Act, as Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s statutory establishment resulted in greatly expanded funding for the language. (Scottish Government, 2016)
This shows that there has been a much more concerted effort on a Government level to invest in rehabilitating Gaelic in the last two decades, and it is likely that having the levers of power over cultural features including languages, as was delivered via devolution, was crucial in driving this funding increase.
In comparing the funding priorities of the Labour and Liberal Democrat Executive with the SNP Government, while the SNP have maintained a high level of funding for Gaelic and spending has increased by 25% since they came to power, the average annual funding increase is only 3.1% compared to the previous administration’s 4.6% (excluding the year following the passage of the Gaelic Language Act). Furthermore, total spending on Gaelic-medium Education has only increased by 6.3%, and has fallen steadily since the 2009-10 financial year. (Scottish Government, 2016)
These figures do not suggest the SNP are as favourable to funding the Gaelic language as their position as the political “owners” of the language would suggest, however when considering the financial climate and that the Scottish Government budget has only grown by 1.3% in that time, the fact that the SNP have protected and increased funding for Gaelic is one that shows their commitment to the language. (Scottish Executive, 2006: 2; Scottish Government, 2015: 4)
Discussion
Devolution has created a renewed focus on developing public policy for Gaelic and resulted in significant new legislation that enshrines Gaelic’s position in Scottish society. This new legislative action has also resulted in a large increase in funding for the institutions of the Gaelic community which has enabled them to further their revitalisation efforts and expand the roles of Gaelic-medium education and broadcasting in particular.
Despite the progress that has been made, though, the “aspirations of the Gaelic community” have not been fully realised as there are important caveats attached to the claimed success of measures such as the Gaelic Language Act. The provisions of the Act are weak and do not give Bòrd na Gàidhlig sufficient powers to enforce language planning in the public sector which hampers revitalisation progress efforts considerably. There has been little progress under the SNP Government to address this, although there has been a sustained level of funding for Gaelic organisations.
Therefore devolution has not quite ushered in the new era of public policy that was hoped for the language, although the Scottish Parliament does have the power to do so, and this has had an impact on the status of the language in Scotland.