Lawyers want to cut Gaelic out of new legislation

IT appears on road signs, school books and even police helicopters – but now Scottish Government lawyers say they want less Gaelic in legislation.

Holyrood’s Parliamentary Counsel Office has published fresh guidance reminding officials to only use Gaelic when strictly necessary.

It urges government lawyers to ‘always use English as far as possible’ and keep instances of Gaelic and Latin to a minimum.

The guidance admits what many have long suspected – an increasing trend towards giving public bodies a Gaelic name as well as an English one.

Ironically, chief parliamentary counsel Andy Beattie says lawyers should be guided by a Gaelic proverb when drafting new laws.

In his foreword to the 107-page manual, Mr Beattie writes: ‘As we go about drafting the Scottish Government’s bills, we are inspired by the Gaelic proverb adorning the walls of our office, which, says “abair ach beagan is abair gu math e”.

‘Translating as “say but little and say it well”, this is an excellent rule of thumb for anyone seeking to make good law.’

Lawyers are also advised to keep laws gender neutral and avoid the use of ‘archaic or legalistic words’ such as foregoing and notwithstanding.

Split infinitives, often regarded as poor grammar, are ‘unobjectionable so long as the right meaning is given clearly’, the guide says.

The guidance states: ‘Always use English as far as possible. Gaelic wording may be necessary in a special context, for example, specifying the body Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

‘Use Latin words only where there is no suitable translation or another good reason for preferring them.’

In a section on the establishment of public bodies, it says: ‘There is an increasing trend towards giving bodies a name in Gaelic as well as in English.

‘If a body is to have two names, consider which is to be the commonly-used one.’

Less than 2 per cent of the Scottish population can speak Gaelic. This means the vast majority cannot understand parts of legislation written in the language.

The SNP has been desperate to drive up levels of Gaelic speaking, as part of its campaign to make Scotland appear distinct from the rest of the UK.

The Scottish Government even fined councils £3.5million earlier this year for failing to find enough Gaelic teachers.

And the cash-strapped Police Scotland was ridiculed last year for spending taxpayers’ money on Gaelic livery for the force helicopter.

But yesterday, the Campaign for Plain English said it was right that legislation only used Gaelic for words, organisations and places commonly referred to in that language.

A spokesman said: ‘If there is an expectation that a document is written in English, you would not use Gaelic phrases and words beyond those specified. You would not have Gaelic words just scattered around, particularly when less than 2 per cent of the population speak it.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The guidance on using English as far as possible is to encourage drafters to avoid using Latin, and is qualified to make clear that there may be some special contexts where Gaelic should be used instead.’

‘Use English as far as possible’