The Welsh Language Board was established to promote and facilitate the use of Welsh; it seeks to encourage the increasing numbers of Welsh speakers to use the language in their everyday lives. The need for the Board is set against a substantial decline in the percentage of Welsh speakers between the end of the 19th century and the third quarter of the 20th century.
Although the Welsh Courts Act 1942 and the Welsh Language Act 1967 made some provision for use of the language in the courts and the public sector more generally, and despite the existence of an increasingly popular Welsh medium education system, the 1980s saw increasing political pressure for further measures to safeguard Welsh.
In 1985, specific proposals for legislation to promote the language were submitted to the Welsh Office by a working party chaired by Lord Gwilym Prys-Davies and, separately, legislative proposals were presented to the House of Commons as a 10-minute rule Bill by Dafydd Wigley MP. Although the Government of the day rejected these proposals, it recognised a general desire to safeguard the future of Welsh.
As a result, Peter Walker, the then Secretary of State for Wales, established an advisory group under the chairmanship of Wyn Roberts, Minister of State at the Welsh Office, to advise what action, if any, was required. Its main recommendation was that a non-statutory, advisory Welsh Language Board be created, to begin the task of promoting the use of Welsh.
This proposal was accepted, and in July 1988, the advisory Welsh Language Board was established, with John Elfed Jones as its Chairman and John Walter Jones as its Director. A further four members of staff were seconded to the Board from the Welsh Office. The Board's duties included advising the Government on matters that required administrative or legislative action and promoting the use of Welsh in the public sector, in the private sector and amongst voluntary sector bodies.
In 1989, the Board also published The Welsh Language: a Strategy for the Future, which, for the first time ever, set out detailed proposals for the promotion and increased use of Welsh. This was followed by the publication of two sets of voluntary guidelines for the use of Welsh in the private and public sectors in Wales.
At all times, the advisory Board sought to keep sight of that which was practicable and achievable. It saw real purpose in recommending measures that had a reasonable prospect becoming law and of making a real and substantial contribution towards the protection of the language and of enhancing its use. To this end, the advisory Board convened numerous working groups, including a legislation working group.
It was the work of this, chaired by Winston Roddick QC, that led the Board to recommend, in 1991, that the Government introduce a new Welsh Language Act which would enshrine the principle that Welsh and English were equally valid—and that individuals had a right to services in the public sector in Welsh and English.
The Government eventually accepted the argument for legislation, and introduced a Welsh Language Act, which came into force in December 1993. The Act created a statutory Welsh Language Board. Lord Elis-Thomas of Nant Conwy was appointed as its first Chair, and John Walter Jones as its Chief Executive. John Walter Jones reitred at the end of March 2004. Meirion Prys Jones was appointed as his successor, and took up his new post in April 2004.