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Alessia Vacca
This article studies the legislation of Wales and Scotland regarding the protection of minority languages (Welsh for Wales and Scottish Gaelic and Scots for Scotland), in particular: the Welsh Language Act 1993, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. The most obvious difference between Welsh and Gaelic is the percentage of people which speak the languages: about 20% for Welsh and 1.2% for Gaelic. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that there will generally be different levels of provision of services in the minority language. Welsh and Scottish Gaelic are protected under Part III of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. With regard to domestic protection, in Wales the legislation (Welsh Language Act 1993) was stronger than in Scotland even before the Welsh Language Measure 2011. This article focused especially on the use of Welsh and Scottish Gaelic in the Public Administration of Wales and Scotland under the linguistic legislation under force.
