Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether recruitment to posts in his Department have included Welsh language skills as an essential or desirable criteria.

Armed Forces personnel posted to Wales are not required to have Welsh language skills.

Civilian posts in the Ministry of Defence which are based in Wales have been advertised with requirements for Welsh language skills, both as essential and as desirable. Recruitment is generally conducted by managers at a local level and they are responsible for setting job criteria. However, the Department would expect a vacancy holder with a post in Wales to specify, as a minimum, Welsh language skills as desirable. If the post was public facing we would expect it to be essential.