Welsh-language checks when briefing a branding agency

What to take away

When briefing an England-based branding agency on Welsh public body work, Welsh language standards are part of the brief, not an optional translation. UK-wide clients and framework agreements can put an English agency on a project where a Welsh public body is the end client.

Treat Welsh-language capability as a specialist requirement when comparing England-focused agencies for a brief that crosses into Wales. Ask whether the agency has named Welsh copywriters, design adaptation experience and a process for compliance evidence.

Brand Agency Guide is an England-focused branding agency directory and reviews site. Welsh-language capability is a specialist requirement to check when an England-based agency takes on UK-wide or framework work where a Welsh public body is the end client.

For those briefs, use this specialist filter alongside the directory's general branding criteria when comparing England agencies.

If your work stays with private clients in England, the standards do not apply. If a Welsh public body is the client, put language parity in the brief before you sign.

Welsh Language Standards in a branding agency brief

Public bodies in Wales operate under a set of duties known as the Welsh Language Standards. These are not aspirational guidance. They are legal requirements, and they apply to how a body communicates with the public in Welsh.

The standards cover service delivery, policy making, operational matters and promotion. In practice that means a public body must offer Welsh-language services, produce Welsh versions of key documents and treat Welsh no less favourably than English.

For an England-based branding agency, the practical effect is that every public-facing asset is potentially bilingual. That includes campaign materials, signage, forms, web pages, social posts and internal communications that reach the public.

The standards are also specific about proactive offers. A body cannot wait for a member of the public to ask for Welsh. In many situations it must offer Welsh first, or at least present both languages with equal prominence.

The Welsh Language Act 1993 set the foundation for these duties, and the standards built on it.

This changes the starting point of a brief. English is no longer the default with Welsh added later. Both languages are inputs from the outset, and the creative concept has to work in both.

Compliance is not a one-off exercise either. Standards are issued in relation to specific duties, and bodies are expected to monitor and report on how they meet them. That reporting obligation feeds back into the brand work, because evidence of compliance often has to be documented.

If you are drafting a brief for the first time, the principles behind how to brief a branding agency still hold: scope, audience, channels, approvals. The difference is that language parity is now one of the scope items.

The Welsh Language Commissioner and compliance evidence

The Welsh Language Commissioner is the regulator for these duties. The Commissioner promotes the use of Welsh and works to ensure that bodies comply with the standards placed on them.

The Commissioner can investigate complaints from members of the public. If a body has failed to meet a standard, the Commissioner can take enforcement action, which may include a requirement to put things right.

The Commissioner also issues guidance and monitors compliance. For public bodies, that means keeping records, responding to enquiries and being able to show what was done and when.

For England-based agencies, this matters because brand assets become evidence. A campaign that was supposed to offer Welsh first but only published English can become a compliance issue, not just a creative one.

Enforcement is not limited to a single complaint. The Commissioner can look at patterns across a body's communications, so a weak bilingual process can create risk across many projects.

If your client is a Welsh public body, ask early who owns the compliance record. If the answer is unclear, the brief needs to define it, because the agency may be asked to supply screenshots, published URLs and language versions as proof.

Ask the client for its compliance notice. That document, issued by the Welsh Language Commissioner, lists the standards that apply to that body.

How bilingual duties change a branding brief in Cardiff

Cardiff is where many Welsh public bodies, national organisations and their agencies meet. The city has a large public sector presence, and that shapes what a brief looks like when an England-based agency takes on a Cardiff public body client.

A Cardiff brief usually starts with a procurement route. Public sector buying rules carry bilingual requirements, and tender documents often specify Welsh-language deliverables before the creative scope is agreed. Check the public sector procurement rules you are working to, then check Sell2Wales and the Welsh Government's procurement policy for the bilingual clauses before you price anything.

That means the brief has to answer language questions that an English-only brief never asks. Which assets are in scope for Welsh? Who writes the Welsh? Who checks it? Who signs it off?

There is also a visibility question. In Cardiff, bilingual signage, wayfinding and campaign material are normal, so a monolingual concept can look out of place. Welsh is part of the visual and verbal identity, not a bolt-on.

England-based agencies also need to think about tone. Welsh-language copy is not a literal translation of English copy. It has its own rhythm, idiom and register, and a straight translation often reads as flat or formal.

That has knock-on effects for naming, taglines and campaign lines. A line that works in English may not work in Welsh, and the brief should allow for a Welsh-first route as well as an English-first one.

If your client operates across the UK, do not assume the same rules apply everywhere. Check which UK rules apply to your project, because Welsh duties sit alongside, not inside, the English regime.

The legal background to Welsh-language agency briefs

The Welsh Language Act 1993 is the foundation for much of the current system. It established the principle that Welsh and English should be treated equally in the provision of public services in Wales.

That Act created the Welsh Language Board and set duties on public bodies to prepare Welsh language schemes. Those schemes were the forerunner of today's standards.

Over time, the scheme approach was seen as too slow and too variable. Different bodies set different commitments, and the public had limited redress. The standards system replaced schemes with clearer, enforceable duties.

The standards themselves were made under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, which also created the role of the Welsh Language Commissioner.

For England-based agencies, the history matters less than the shift it represents. Welsh language provision moved from a scheme-based promise to a duty that can be enforced, measured and complained about.

That shift is why bilingual work now appears in procurement, in performance reporting and in brand governance. It is no longer a courtesy. It is part of the compliance map for any Welsh public body.

Scoping Welsh-language design, copy and testing

Bilingual work costs more than monolingual work, and the brief should say so plainly. The main cost drivers are Welsh copywriting, design adaptation, translation checking and user testing.

Welsh copywriting is not the same as translation. A good Welsh copywriter writes for the audience, and that takes time. If you only budget for translation, you will get text that fits the space but not the brand.

Design adaptation is the second cost. Welsh words are often longer than their English equivalents, and line breaks, buttons and headlines need to be tested in both languages. Layouts that look clean in English can break in Welsh.

Testing is the third cost. If the campaign has a public-facing call to action, test it with Welsh speakers. Small wording changes can affect comprehension and trust, and testing is cheaper than fixing a live campaign.

A simple worked example helps. Suppose a public body needs a campaign landing page, a leaflet and three social formats. English-only, that might be one copy pass and one design pass.

Bilingual, it becomes two copy passes, two design adaptations, a proofread in Welsh and a round of user testing. The scope has grown, and the fee should reflect it.

Put a figure on the uplift. In the worked example above, the bilingual version needs two copy passes, two design passes, a Welsh proofread and a testing round against one of each in English, which typically puts production around 25 per cent above the English-only scope.

Welsh copywriting is billed by the day or by the word, and the day rate depends on the writer's seniority, sector and volume, so ask for both. Treat the 25 per cent as a planning assumption and replace it with your own figures once the copy deck is agreed.

Use the same budgeting discipline you would use elsewhere, from defined scope to VAT, and separate the Welsh line items so the client can see what they are buying. If you are unsure how VAT applies to translation and design, check with HMRC guidance rather than guessing.

Questions to settle before a bilingual brief is signed

Before you sign, settle the language split. Which assets are Welsh-first, which are bilingual and which are English-only? The answer should be written into the brief, not left to the studio.

Settle the approval chain. Who signs off the Welsh? If the client's Welsh language officer is not in the loop, expect delays and rewrites.

Settle the source of truth. Is the Welsh copy supplied, or does the agency write it? If the agency writes it, who checks it? A named checker is better than a shared inbox.

Settle the testing plan. Which assets get tested with Welsh speakers, how many participants and what counts as a pass? Testing is a cost, so it needs a scope.

Settle the evidence. What will the client need to show the Welsh Language Commissioner if asked? Screenshots, URLs, publication dates and language versions are the usual items. Your agency's own compliance map should list who holds each item.

Settle the commercial terms. Are Welsh deliverables inside the fixed fee or billed separately? If they are inside, make sure the extra time is priced in rather than absorbed.

Common questions