Our commitment to the Welsh language

As an organisation committed to representing everyone who uses water across England and Wales, reflecting and celebrating the diversity of the people we help is important to everyone at CCW. An important part of this is our Welsh Language Scheme, which aims to give Welsh speakers an equal opportunity to communicate with us in Welsh.

Our commitment

Every year, we report our progress to the Welsh Language Commission, an organisation that promotes and facilitates the use of the Welsh language and works with public sector bodies to ensure that the Welsh language is not treated any less than the English language in Wales.

Welsh Language

Today, we’re publishing our Welsh Language report for 2021-22 (pdf) and are delighted to share with you a brief summary of all the ways we’ve celebrated the vibrant culture and language of Wales in the past year.

Within our organisation, we’re always looking for ways to embrace our cultural diversity, and St David’s Day gave us an opportunity to raise awareness among colleagues with a dedicated Welsh Language event. Joined by colleagues from across CCW, we reminded everyone of our responsibilities when it comes to Welsh-speaking consumers and stakeholders. We also invited some of our Welsh-speaking colleagues to give some personal reflections about Welsh in a wider cultural context. Since attending this event, a number of colleagues across CCW have requested more information about taking up Welsh language lessons.

Outside of CCW, we’ve continued to offer communications in Welsh language, and make it easier for people to communicate with us in Welsh when they want to.

Online tool

Last year, we implemented a digital translation tool, enabling visitors to our website to view our online content in a language of their choice. We place special emphasis on the Welsh language, with a direct link from our homepage enabling users to instantly view translated content. We’ve built on this further in 2021-22 by carrying out spot checks on the quality of the translation, and by monitoring how the tool is being used. I’m pleased to report that the majority of the usage of the translation tool is to view content in Welsh.

Committee Meetings in Wales

Our Wales Committee meetings, held twice a year, provide an important opportunity for anyone interested in our work in Wales to hear more from us and the organisations we work alongside.

In 2021-22, we introduced simultaneous translation to these meetings for the first time, using a virtual event platform to allow parts of the meeting to be held in Welsh and translated into English for non-Welsh speaking attendees. We were pleased to see the opportunity to speak Welsh being taken not only by presenters but by attendees as part of the event’s Q&A session. Giving the Welsh language prominence in our Wales-focused meetings was an important development for us, and one that we’re particularly proud of.

Video content

We’ve produced more video content this year to help people solve their water-related issues and understand more about how CCW is representing them. This includes lots more content in Welsh and with Welsh translations, such as our dedicated Wales-focused strategy video and a translated version of our explainer video setting out how we represent customers in the price review process.

Our efforts to make the Welsh language more prominent in all our communications won’t stop as we enter a new year, and we’re looking forward to bringing our unique language and culture to life even more creatively in 2022-23.