Information that Cymdeithas yr Iaith has received through freedom of information requests has shown that the Welsh Language Commissioner's office has carried out fewer investigations into cases of failure to comply with the Welsh Language Standards and that the percentage of complaints being investigated has fallen year on year.

As well as that, proposed changes to the Commissioner's Enforcement Policy and the contents of the current Strategic Plan that were recently published put much less emphasis on rights and on statutory requirements on the bodies that come under the Welsh Language Measure 2011.

In 2021/22 the Commissioner investigated 63% of the complaints received (66 of the 104 valid complaints), but by 2023/24 the percentage had fallen to 44% (42 of the 95 valid complaints). The percentage has fallen even though the number of valid complaints is lower, which means that the Commissioner has investigated a significantly lower number of complaints.

Siân Howys on behalf of Cymdeithas yr Iaith:
"The fact that the Commissioner is carrying out fewer investigations is clearly a cause for concern. The Welsh Language Measure 2011 establishes the Welsh Language Commissioner as an advocate for Welsh language rights and as a regulator of the bodies that come under the Welsh Language Standards, to ensure that they fulfil their statutory duties. Without investigating a complaint, the Commissioner cannot use enforcement powers to ensure that Welsh language services are of the necessary quality. The growing trend not to investigate complaints will mean that bodies will be less concerned about complying with their legal duties, and ordinary people will lose faith in the system.
"It's significant that we had to make a Freedom of Information request to get this information, as it was not publicly available. Until 2023, information about the number of complaints, investigations into complaints and their result were included in the Welsh Language Commissioner's Annual Report."

Cymdeithas yr Iaith's concern is that this is part of a pattern by the Welsh Language Commissioner of weakening the Welsh Language Standards and that people's rights to use the Welsh language are being undermined.

Siân Howys added:
"Recently the Welsh Language Commissioner published a new draft Enforcement Policy which moves to a "co-regulation" model with the relevant bodies, a move we strongly oppose. The Commissioner's core function is to be an independent regulator that guarantees rights to the Welsh language. We have emphasized that in response to recent consultations on the Commissioner's Strategic Plan and Enforcement Policy and we are calling on the Commissioner to drop these proposals which is a step backwards for the language rights of the people of Wales."
"The Welsh Language Commissioner has recently published a new draft Enforcement Policy which moves to a "co-regulation" model, a move we oppose. We were also surprised that the word "right" was only used once in the new Strategic Plan, and only at the end of it, and that the word was not used at all in the draft put out for consultation. The Commissioner's core function is to be an independent regulator that guarantees rights to the Welsh language. We have emphasised that in response to recent consultations on the Commissioner's Strategic Plan and Enforcement Policy and we call on the Commissioner to strengthen, not weaken, the Enforcement Policy."