Websites for charities and public bodies in Wales
Websites for charities and public bodies: the Welsh Language Standards, met properly
The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 made Welsh an official language in Wales and gave the Welsh Language Commissioner the power to impose standards on public bodies. For a website the standards say three things: the text of each page must be available in Welsh, every Welsh page must be fully functional, and Welsh must be treated no less favourably than English. The Commissioner investigates complaints and can fine up to £5,000. Private businesses are not bound; charities and suppliers usually are not bound either, but are often asked to meet the same test by the body that funds or contracts them. We build sites that pass it, and that trustees can sign off.
Who is bound, who is asked, who chooses
Three positions, and the website each one needs
- Bound by standards
- The Welsh Government, the 22 councils, the national park authorities, the health boards and NHS trusts, universities and colleges, police and fire services, and other bodies named in regulations since 2015. A compliance notice from the Commissioner sets out which standards apply, and the website must meet them in full.
- Asked to meet the test
- A supplier delivering a public-facing service under contract to one of those bodies, and a charity whose Welsh Government, council or lottery grant asks how the project serves Welsh speakers. Nothing in law binds the site directly; the contract or the grant does, and building the public-facing pages to the same test from day one is cheaper than the phase two that never comes.
- Choosing it
- A charity or business with no duty that wants to serve Welsh speakers well. The Commissioner's Cynnig Cymraeg, the Welsh Offer, recognises organisations that set out how they will offer Welsh: say what you offer in Welsh, then do it.
No less favourably
What the phrase means on a website, item by item
The standards describe a comparison, not a design: is anything about the Welsh experience worse, later or smaller than the English one. This is the list we build to and check before launch.
- The Welsh page for every English page, at its own address, published on the same day
- Menus, footer, cookie banner, search and the interface in Welsh on the Welsh pages
- Forms, error messages, confirmation pages and automated emails in Welsh
- Documents available in Welsh, or the Welsh page saying plainly where one is English only
- The language switch on every page, opening the same page, with the choice remembered
- Welsh page titles and descriptions, so a Google result is in the right language
- The logo and strapline treating Welsh no less favourably, which is its own standard
- Updates made in both languages at once, with a process that makes forgetting the Welsh impossible
Accessibility and the rest
WCAG 2.2, donations that work on a phone, and the pages trustees need
Public sector bodies must meet WCAG 2.2 at level AA under the 2018 accessibility regulations and publish an accessibility statement. Charities are mostly outside those regulations and inside the Equality Act 2010, which requires reasonable adjustments for disabled people using any service. We build every site to WCAG 2.2 AA regardless: keyboard access with a visible focus, contrast checked as a design token rather than page by page, headings in order, labels on every field, and a statement that says what is not perfect. Our own sites score 100 for accessibility in Lighthouse and we test yours the same way before launch.
A charity site also has to take money without losing it: a donate button that works with one thumb through the provider you already use, a Gift Aid declaration where it belongs, a thank-you in the donor's language, and the registered charity number in the footer, which the Charity Commission expects on anything that asks for money. The annual report where a funder can find it, the safeguarding policy, the trustees by name. And what a procurement panel asks for before anyone reads the design: a fixed price from the pricing page, a written scope, our ICO registration (ZC207002), and the audit of the current site so the panel can see what it is paying to fix.
Questions businesses in Wales ask us
Is our charity bound by the Welsh Language Standards?
Most charities are not bound directly; the standards are imposed on named public bodies, and a few third-sector bodies such as WCVA have been under them since 2017. What reaches most charities is the duty passed down: a grant condition from the Welsh Government or a council, or a contract to deliver a public service. Then the website is expected to meet the same test, and building to it from the start is cheaper than retrofitting.
What does the Commissioner actually check on a website?
That the text of each page is available in Welsh, that every Welsh page is fully functional, and that Welsh is treated no less favourably than English: the same content at the same time, menus and the interface in Welsh, forms and apps that work in Welsh. The Commissioner investigates complaints and can impose a civil penalty of up to £5,000.
Can trustees approve this without a procurement exercise?
That is for your governing document and your funder's rules, and we make it easy either way: a written quote with a fixed price, a scope trustees can read in five minutes, our ICO registration, an accessibility statement and a data-processing note for the forms. Where three quotes are required, ours is the one with the prices already on the website.
Send us the site and the compliance notice, or the grant letter
You get a page-by-page check against the no less favourably test and WCAG 2.2, in plain English for the board, and a fixed price for the rebuild or the fix.