Does my business legally have to have a Welsh website?

The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gives Welsh official status in Wales. It also says how that status takes legal effect: through other laws, among them the duties placed on particular bodies to use Welsh. Official status on its own does not require every business to publish in Welsh.

Those duties are the Welsh language standards. Section 33 of the Measure says who can be made to comply with them, by reference to lists in its schedules, and section 44 says a body is bound by a standard when the Commissioner gives it a compliance notice. If your business has never received one, the standards do not apply to it.

The other Welsh language duty, a Welsh language scheme under the Welsh Language Act 1993, is for public organisations that deliver public services in Wales, not for private businesses. So for a shop, a trade or a holiday let, a Welsh website is a business decision rather than a legal one, and the rest of this guide is about making that decision well.

Schedule 8 of the Measure names the kinds of private business that can be brought under standards: licensed gas and electricity suppliers, water and sewerage undertakers in Wales, post offices and postal services, telecommunications, bus and passenger rail services, education and training paid for with public money, and the services related to all of these.

Even then, it takes regulations approved by the Senedd for that sector, and a compliance notice. The Commissioner’s list of regulations made so far includes water and sewerage companies. A small electrician or café is not in any of these categories.

One entry matters to more small firms than the rest. Schedule 8 also covers businesses that provide services to the public under an agreement with the Welsh Ministers, a UK government department or a county council in Wales. If you deliver a public service under contract, or take a public grant, Welsh may come with it as a term of the deal. The Commissioner publishes a guide for exactly this, on Welsh language considerations when bidding for contracts and grants: read your contract before assuming you are free of it.

Not being required to is a different thing from not benefiting. The Commissioner’s guidance for businesses says research shows the public value Welsh services from businesses and charities, especially in marketing and direct contact. A customer who can ask in Welsh, and get an answer, remembers it.

There is also the plain matter of being found. A question asked in Welsh, to a search engine or an assistant, is answered from pages written in Welsh. Our guide on AI visibility for Welsh websites explains how a Welsh page is recognised as one; the point here is only that a site with no Welsh has nothing for those questions to find.

An invented example: a bakery in Llanrwst with an English-only site adds one Welsh page with its opening hours, what it bakes and how to order, and a line on the contact page saying customers are welcome to write in Welsh. No law asked for it, and it cost an afternoon and a check by a fluent speaker.

You do not have to translate everything at once, and a half-finished Welsh site is worse than a small, complete one. Start with the pages a customer acts on: what you do, where you are, when you are open, how to get in touch. Make sure the contact form, its messages and the reply email work in Welsh too, or say plainly that replies may come in English.

A Welsh-only site is a choice some businesses make, and it suits a customer base that is Welsh-speaking. If you serve a mixed area, a bilingual site turns neither group of customers away. Either way, keep the facts identical in both languages and change them together.

The Commissioner’s own model for a business is useful here. Working towards its Cynnig Cymraeg, the Hybu team helps an organisation identify at least five key Welsh language services, and the offer has to be a fair reflection of what is available. Five honest things, stated plainly, is a good first website too.

The Welsh Government’s Helo Blod service, through Business Wales, translates up to 500 words a month into Welsh free, checks up to 1,000 words a year of Welsh you have written, and gives advice. It cannot help with material that must be published in Welsh to comply with standards or a statutory Welsh language scheme, or with publicly funded projects whose funding already requires bilingual material or pays for translation.

The Commissioner’s Hybu team works with private businesses and charities on a Welsh Language Development Plan. With a strong plan, an organisation can submit its Cynnig Cymraeg, or Welsh Offer, for the Commissioner’s official recognition and use its logo; the Commissioner says over 160 organisations have received it. The pages we read do not say whether the support costs anything, so ask the team before you start.

The Commissioner also publishes practical guides for businesses, including one on bilingual design that covers websites. The free assessment on this site checks whether a page declares its language and names its other version, in either language.