Welsh Language Standards
Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and the Welsh Language Standards Regulations (No. 1 Regulations 2015 onwards).
The Welsh Language Standards are duties made under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and imposed on public bodies in Wales by compliance notices. For signs they require Welsh text that is accurate, treated no less favourably than English and placed to be read first.
For signage and wayfinding
What it asks of your signs
- 01When a body subject to the sign standards erects or renews a sign, including a temporary one, all its text must appear in Welsh, on the same sign as the English or on a separate one.
- 02Where both languages appear, the Welsh must not be treated less favourably than the English: size, weight, colour and position all count.
- 03The Welsh text must be positioned so that it is likely to be read first. Welsh on the left, or above the English, is the usual way to achieve it.
- 04The Welsh must be accurate in meaning and expression. Build translation and proofing into the artwork programme.
- 05Bodies with reception standards must display a sign, in Welsh, saying that people are welcome to use Welsh at reception.
- 06Wording fixed by another enactment, such as a prescribed statutory sign, is not overridden by the standards.
- 07Check the body's own compliance notice. Standards bind a body only once the Commissioner imposes them, and notices can set different dates and exceptions.
How the system works
The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gives Welsh official status in Wales and replaced the Welsh language schemes of the Welsh Language Act 1993 with standards. The Welsh Ministers specify standards in regulations, and the Welsh Language Commissioner then gives each body a compliance notice listing the standards it must meet. A council, a health board and a university can therefore have slightly different duties, and the compliance notice is the document to ask for at briefing.
Six sets of regulations are in force. The No. 1 Regulations 2015 cover the Welsh Ministers, county and county borough councils and National Park authorities. The later sets cover other sectors; the No. 7 Regulations 2018, for example, cover Local Health Boards and NHS Trusts in Wales, and repeat the sign duties as Standards 47 to 49 for signs and notices.
The sign standards
In the No. 1 Regulations the sign duties are Standards 61, 62 and 63. Standard 61 requires Welsh on any new or renewed sign and forbids treating the Welsh less favourably. Standard 62 requires the Welsh to be positioned so it is likely to be read first where the same information appears in both languages. Standard 63 requires the Welsh to be accurate. The Regulations also say that a duty to display material in Welsh does not mean Welsh only, nor Welsh first, unless a standard says so. For signs, Standard 62 does say so.
Standards on events, reception and official notices reach into wayfinding too: signs displayed at a body's events must not treat Welsh less favourably, and reception signage has its own Welsh welcome requirement.
Design guidance
The Commissioner's Bilingual Design Guide (2014) treats language separation as particularly important on signs, and asks designers to consider font, format, colour, size, clarity, prominence and quality. Separate the languages consistently across the scheme so a reader can follow their own language through a building without hunting. Its newer signage guide for businesses, A sign of good business, shows worked examples.
How it compares
Ireland's rules are closer to a single prescriptive formula: Irish first, no smaller and no less prominent, for every public body. Scotland has no statutory sign formula, and each authority's Gaelic language plan sets its own commitments. In all three, the duty usually reaches signs a contractor supplies on the body's behalf.
Editions and history
Welsh language standards replaced the Welsh language schemes agreed with the Welsh Language Board under the Welsh Language Act 1993. The first standards regulations were the No. 1 Regulations 2015; further sets followed in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Sources checked
- legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2015/996/schedule/1/made
- legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2015/996/made
- legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2018/441/schedule/1/made
- legislation.gov.uk/mwa/2011/1/section/1
- law.gov.wales/welsh-language-standards
- welshlanguagecommissioner.wales/media/niknstqs/bilingual-design-guide-eng.pdf
- comisiynyddygymraeg.cymru/media/vptkg0px/canllaw-arwyddion.pdf
A summary in our own words, checked on 16 October 2026. It is not the document itself and not legal advice.
Equivalents and related
The same ground, elsewhere.
- Official Languages Act 2003 (as amended), with the Official Languages Act 2003 (Section 9) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No. 391 of 2008)Ireland
- Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, as amended by the Scottish Languages Act 2025, and Bòrd na Gàidhlig statutory guidance on Gaelic language plansScotland
- Approved Document M: Access to and use of buildings (Wales)Wales
- The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 (SI 2016/362)Great Britain
- Wayfinding: effective wayfinding and signing systems, guidance for healthcare facilitiesEngland · Scotland · Wales
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