The Welsh language shouldn't be an indulgence but a right

HERE'S an old Welsh saying: “Mae'r tegell yn berwi a dw i’n barod” - the kettle is boiling, and I am ready. In Wales, that kettle has been boiling for a long time and it’s about time we had the right to receive our most personal and sacred documents - birth, marriage, and death certificates - in our own language.

- Alex Barros-Curtis MP

Alex Barros-Curtis is the Labour MP for Cardiff West. He is campaigning for the right to include the Welsh language on birth, marriage, and death certificates. His Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Welsh Language Provision) bill says any birth, death or marriage certificate issued in Wales or England, should be available in English, Welsh or bilingually...

Yet in 2025, unbelievably, that right is still not guaranteed. I want to make sure it is.

You may be reading this and thinking - I received my child’s birth certificate or my parents’ death certificate in English and Welsh, so what's the problem? Well, there are many circumstances in which you might receive an English-only certificate. If you receive cross-border healthcare for example, and give birth in England, you will receive an English-only certificate. There are also circumstances where a person might live in Wales and die in Wales, yet their family still receive an English only death certificate.

This is what happened to my constituent after her husband sadly passed away. Her husband was a proud Welshman and proud Welsh speaker, and so naturally the family wanted his death certificate to be issued bilingually - yet the family received an English-only certificate.