Welsh (English Only) Brand Commitee.

Leader of the Commons Chris Grayling this month rejected calls to allow MPs meeting together in the Welsh Grand Committee to speak in Welsh because it would “cost taxpayers’ money” – but he has now admitted no “detailed estimate” of translation costs has been made.

Clwyd South Labour MP Susan Elan Jones had pushed for the freedom to use Welsh, and Shadow Leader of Commons Chris Bryant added his weight to the calls but Mr Grayling said he had “considered it carefully”.

However, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards pressed for further detail, asking in a written question 

“what estimate he has made of the potential cost of providing simultaneous and written translation in Welsh Grand Committees for bilingual proceeding”.

Mr Grayling replied: 

“English is and should remain the language of this House. The Government has not made a detailed estimate of the cost of providing simultaneous and written translation in Welsh Grand Committees.”

 The Welsh Grand Committee,  is a committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is one of four such grand committees in the United Kingdom Parliament, the other three are for Scotland, Northern Ireland and as of October 2015 England..^[1] The committee is made up of all 40 Welsh MPs and up to five other MPs.

The committee can meet after a Queen’s Speech or budget statement to consider the impact the legislation and finances outlined would have on Wales. It also provides an opportunity for MPs to question ministers, debate current matters and for ministers to make statements. There are between three and six committee meetings per year.

So what exactly would be the cost of a mmaximum of six meetings a year? 

Mr Edwards said: 

“[He] has now admitted that no assessment has been made because we know the costs are negligible.
“The Leader of the House should make a statement to the House retracting his previous statement. If the UK Government are not prepared to do it, the House authorities should commission an assessment of how much it would actually cost to translate the proceedings so at least the Welsh Grand and the Welsh Affairs select committee are able to function bilingually.”

Curiously The Welsh Affairs Select Committee (or simply the 'Welsh Affairs Committee') is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Wales Office, and relations with the Welsh Assembly.conduct itself bilingualy

So Mr Graylings  English is and should remain the language of this House is not techinacly correct. Thee by the way are the current members

Member		Party	Constituency
	David T C Davies MP (Chair)	Conservative	Monmouth
	Byron Davies MP	Conservative	Gower
	Chris Davies MP	Conservative	Brecon and Radnorshire
	Dr James Davies MP	Conservatives	Vale of Clwyd
	Carolyn Harris MP	Labour	Swansea East
	Gerald Jones MP	Labour	Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
	Christina Rees MP	Labour	Neath
	Antoinette Sandbach MP	Conservative	Eddisbury
	Liz Saville-Roberts MP	Plaid Cymru	Dwyfor Meirionnydd
	Craig Williams MP	Conservative	Cardiff North
	Mark Williams MP	Liberal Democrat	Ceredigion

It is welcoming that the initial moves for the use  came for the  from Labour members . Perhaps we can now ask the "Welsh" Conservatives if they feel that Welsh should be blocked from this committee over to you  Guto Bebb, former Plaid member and now Conservative MP for Aberconwy  he may have abandoned Independence  but has he abandoned Cymraeg and its use?