37.Section 6 of the Act inserts a new section 2C into the 2005 Act, giving the Scottish Ministers a power to make regulations to specify standards and requirements relating to promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of the Gaelic language which are to apply to relevant public authorities in exercising their functions.
38.Regulations under section 2C may in particular make provision about the preparation of publications and provision of information, make provision about how functions are to be exercised in areas of linguistic significance and otherwise make different provision for different areas (including different parts of the area in which the authority exercises its functions, for example different parts of a local authority area). Regulations which make provision about how functions are to be exercised in areas of linguistic significance may in particular include provision about the exercise of functions relating to the matters listed in section 2C(3).
39.Regulations under section 2C are subject to the affirmative procedure and the Scottish Ministers must publish a draft of the standards and requirements to be specified by the regulations and consult interested parties on those draft standards and requirements before laying a draft of the regulations before the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Ministers must publish the results of that consultation.
40.A draft instrument containing the first set of regulations must be laid before the Scottish Parliament within 1 year of the section coming into force. If this is approved by the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Ministers must make the regulations.
Commentary on Provisions Part 1: Gaelic Chapter 1: Support for the Gaelic language Section 6: Gaelic language standards