Corporate report

Companies House Welsh language monitoring report 2023 to 2024

Published 29 April 2025

1. Introduction

The Companies House Welsh Language Scheme was prepared in accordance with section 21(3) of the Welsh Language Act and received the full endorsement of the Welsh Language Board on 20 April 2010.

This report covers the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

Companies House is proud to have its head office in Cardiff and of the Welsh language services we offer to our customers. Since we established our Welsh Language Unit in September 2020, we feel that communication has improved across all areas of Companies House and all Welsh customer services are monitored by the Welsh Language Unit to ensure that we are providing a service of a high standard to our Welsh customers. 

We have also maintained a Welsh language committee that meets regularly to monitor progress and performance, along with a team of Welsh speakers we can consult on everyday issues. Membership of the committee is drawn from across the organisation, including our Director of Digital and Technology who acts as chair.

2. Achievements

We introduced the first set of changes under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (2023) on 4 March 2024. The act gives Companies House the power to play a more significant role in tackling economic crime and supporting economic growth. Over time, the measures will lead to improved transparency and more accurate and trusted information on our registers. The act introduced the biggest changes to Companies House since corporate registrations were established in 1844.

We published a in November 2023. The campaign site is the main place our users and the public can find out more about the changes being brought in as a result of the act. 

The site is the first fully bilingual campaign site across government. The Welsh site has received more than 1,000 views.

The first set of changes also required a high number of new forms and updates to our current forms and guidance. These changes were also made to our Welsh and bilingual forms and guidance.

3. Compliance with the Welsh Language Scheme

Companies House remains committed to complying with its Welsh Language Scheme and from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, achieved the following.

Our Welsh language committee met bi-monthly to ensure adherence to the Companies House Welsh Language Scheme and review progress against the action plan. Welsh service meetings were also held to consider the services offered to Welsh speaking customers.

A team of Welsh speakers from various areas within Companies House continued to respond to customer enquiries. During the reporting period, 34 customers asked to speak in Welsh (21 in the last annual report) and we received 44 emails in Welsh through the general enquiries email.

In this reporting period, 15 Welsh speaking customers contacted Companies House directly with general queries, including:

• a request to remove a name and address from a company on the register
• a request for an authentication code to file online
• support on how to file accounts online
• support with filing a confirmation statement online

We continued to make the most filed forms 바카라 사이트“ which make up 95% of filings on the register 바카라 사이트“ available bilingually, both in paper form and electronically.

The Welsh Language Unit has also attended sessions with the Digital Public Services Centre (Welsh 바카라 사이트) to share good practice and discuss how we can improve bilingual services and encourage people to choose Welsh when using our services.

We continued to review Companies House guidance to ensure that all guidance created by Companies House is available bilingually, other than that which is specifically not applicable to Welsh companies (for example, guidance on matters that affect only Scottish companies).

Customers who corresponded with Companies House in Welsh received a response in Welsh. All departments in Companies House communicate with our Welsh Language Unit to ensure that the customer has their correspondence in the language of their choice. The unit provided a translation service for each department.

Each set of Welsh language accounts received from Welsh companies were translated into English for the public record, as required by law. Ninety Welsh accounts were translated to English in this reporting period by the Welsh Language Unit.

Additionally, we continued to translate correspondence into Welsh to satisfy the requirements of our Welsh Language Scheme. This included letters, forms, guidance, project work and translations for our online filing services.

All contracts issued included a clause ensuring that our service partners comply with Companies House Welsh language commitments.

Companies House continued to participate in the UK 바카라 사이트 interdepartmental CALL Committee. The committee regularly brings together representatives from the Welsh language units of various UK 바카라 사이트 departments and provides an ideal forum to share best practice and find solutions to improving our Welsh language services with a mind to achieving a more standardised approach across government. Colleagues from the CALL committee provided support for the establishment of the Welsh Language Unit at Companies House.

4. Mainstreaming the Welsh Language

Companies House considered the Welsh language in the following ways.

We continued to consider our Welsh services at the earliest stage of all projects through the inclusion of Welsh in all project managers바카라 사이트™ checklists and other development plans. The Welsh Language Unit manager sits on various panels to drive this forward.

We launched our bilingual careers hub in October 2023. The banner on the homepage of the site features content in Welsh and English and users view the rest of the site바카라 사이트™s content in English or Welsh using a toggle in the top right of the screen.

So far, the number of users visiting the site바카라 사이트™s Welsh pages has been relatively low 바카라 사이트“ 24 unique visitors and 114 page views between October 2023 and March 2024 바카라 사이트“ but we believe it is important that prospective employees can view information in Welsh if they prefer and that this demonstrates the diverse and inclusive culture they바카라 사이트™ll find at Companies House.

We launched a to give journalists access to downloadable corporate imagery and frequently asked questions in both English and Welsh. Users can switch between the 2 languages using the toggle button in the navigation bar.

We continued to share Welsh language messages across our corporate social media accounts 바카라 사이트“ X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn and Facebook.

Between 1 April 2023 and1 April 2024, we posted 38 Welsh language posts on our X account. These posts supported users to comply with their obligations to Companies House, and informed them of upcoming changes to Companies House under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, such as:

The posts have received more than 18,600 impressions. During this same period, we reviewed how we post our daily morning messages to encourage users to get in touch with us if they have any questions. We바카라 사이트™ve introduced dedicated Welsh language morning messages, and we바카라 사이트™ll report on their performance during the next reporting period.

We posted twice on our Facebook account. These posts focused on:

Our Welsh language posts on Facebook received more than 13,500 impressions.

On LinkedIn, we posted 3 posts in Welsh. These posts formed part of a recruitment campaign, encouraging users to visit:

The posts received 1,900 impressions and had an engagement rate of 1.30%.

Traditionally X has been our strongest and most successful channel and we바카라 사이트™ve therefore focused more attention on this channel. We바카라 사이트™re seeing a shift in the social media landscape and have been reviewing our social media strategy. Long term, we바카라 사이트™re planning to include more bilingual content on our Facebook channel. We바카라 사이트™ll report on performance during the next reporting period.

4.1 YouTube videos

We바카라 사이트™re in the process of updating our YouTube videos to reflect our changing role and to provide an overview of the new measures for our customers and stakeholders. We created voiceovers for 2 Welsh language videos during the reporting period:

4.2 Campaigns

We ran a directors바카라 사이트™ responsibilities campaign over 2 phases which focused on general duties and filing compliance. Both phases featured Welsh resources and content. We also created a stakeholder site that included suggested copy, content, information and creative assets in Welsh.

(phase 1: September 2023, phase 2: December 2023).

We updated the Bod yn gyfarwyddwr cwmni 바카라 사이트 page with campaign content and published Welsh language creative and messages on our social media channels. We also published 2 campaign news stories in Welsh:

• Anogir cwmnïau i ffeilio cyfrifon yn gynnar er mwyn osgoi cosbau
• Ffeilio eich cyfrifon yn gynnar ym mis Rhagfyr i osgoi cosb

We also updated the Working for Companies House 바카라 사이트 page with campaign content.

5. Performance indicators

In the reporting period, there were 6,920 Welsh jurisdiction companies and 24 Welsh jurisdiction limited liability partnerships (LLPs) incorporated.

By the end of the reporting period, there were 33,004 Welsh jurisdiction companies and 156 Welsh jurisdiction LLPs on the register.

By the end of the reporting period, there were 1,849 Welsh companies and 7 LLPs incorporated with a Welsh name ending on the register.

5.1 Companies House contact centre

There are 2 full time members of Welsh speaking staff at the contact centre. There is a contractual requirement to provide a service through the medium of Welsh. The last reporting period saw a change in service provider which meant that we lost some of our Welsh speaking staff. We therefore did a recruitment exercise to ensure that we have Welsh speakers in post. The turnover of staff is high which proves a challenge at times.

If a customer specifically asks to speak to a Welsh speaker and one is not available, we offer the customer the choice of completing the call in English or request the customer바카라 사이트™s contact telephone number so that a Welsh speaker can contact them directly, as per our Welsh Language Scheme. During this reporting period, 5 calls were received in Welsh and 51 emails in Welsh.

The Welsh Language Unit now hold regular meetings with the contact centre to ensure that everyone understands the importance of providing a Welsh language provision, no matter how small the number who currently contact us.

The Welsh Language Unit also holds regular meetings with Welsh speakers at the contact centre to make sure that they can use and practise their Welsh as the percentage of Welsh calls at present is low. 

5.2 Language training and awareness

Companies House has continued to promote Welsh language development opportunities for our staff and offer opportunities for the staff to use their Welsh at the workplace.

The Welsh Language Unit hold a Caffi Cymraeg (Welsh café) in the building each month to give staff an opportunity to use and practice their Welsh at work. There are fluent Welsh speakers attending but also Welsh learners from various areas of Companies House. The Welsh Language Unit also provide online support sessions for the staff currently learning Welsh at Companies House.

The Welsh language Unit also puts regular articles and Welsh language vocabulary on the Companies Interact page. This has raised awareness and ensured the Welsh language has visibility across the whole of Companies House. The Welsh Language Unit also has a permanent page on Interact (our internal intranet site) which includes guidance for each area on Welsh communications, our Welsh Language Scheme, and a list of Welsh speakers in each area.

The Welsh Language Unit internal social page now has 80 members; we continue to provide Welsh content and advertise our events on here.

Companies House offered Welsh Language learning opportunities to all staff in line with its Adult Education Scheme. The organisation has fully supported those who have taken advantage of this opportunity by covering the cost of the course, as well as providing facilitation time to study.

We now have 3 cohorts learning Welsh through Learn Welsh Glamorgan at Companies House. Sixteen people are currently learning Welsh across the 3 cohorts.

Companies House continued to encourage and support volunteer days which we believe are a positive means of contributing to the local community while developing Welsh language skills.

6. Complaints

The number of complaints received about the lack of Welsh language service provision and the steps put in place to resolve these complaints.

During this reporting period there were 2 instances in which customers contacted Companies House relating to its Welsh language service. Please see a summary of the complaints below.

One customer complained about their accounts not being available on the public register. We investigated this, and we had not received these accounts. We ensured that no late filing penalty was given as the customer could show us proof of delivery. 

One customer complained about the Find and update a company service not being available in Welsh. The Welsh Language Unit has passed this complaint on to the relevant service owners. 

7. Conclusion

Our Welsh Language Unit and the Welsh Committee will continue to ensure that all areas at Companies House are aware of the organisational responsibilities under the Welsh Language Scheme and that everybody sees the importance of a proactive Welsh language offering to our customers.

We remain committed to providing an excellent Welsh language service for our customers and will work with all departments in Companies House to Champion bilingualism across the organisation.

There is still a lot of work to do to ensure that our Welsh services are fully equal to the English, but we are moving in the right direction.

8. Companies House action plan

8.1 Legislation and initiatives

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
Review action plan on a quarterly basis	Quarterly	The Welsh Language Unit	The content of the action plan was reviewed as part of the Welsh Language Committee which met bimonthly in 2023 to 2024.
Review strategic plan quarterly to link to the Welsh language action plan	Quarterly	The Welsh Language Unit	Our commitment to Welsh language services underpins 2 of our key strategic goals - brilliant services that give a great user experience and registers of data that inspire trust and confidence.
Consider how new policies, projects and developments will conform with the commitments set out in the Welsh Language Scheme	Ongoing	The Welsh Language Unit	We have continued, and will continue, to consider our Welsh Language Scheme in new policies, developments and projects.

8.2 Staffing

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
Maintain ongoing Welsh language training, targeted at language speaking skills	Ongoing	The Welsh Language Unit/Human Resources	The Welsh Language Unit arranged online Welsh lessons for 16 people across Companies House through the University of Glamorgan. The Welsh Language Unit is also providing opportunities for staff to use and practice their Welsh at the workplace. It is important in Companies House culture that the staff feel like they can bring their whole selves to work and part of this is being able to use their language of choice at work.
Ensure Welsh speaking staff are present in all major operational areas to provide cover for Welsh speaking customers	Ongoing	Directors	Companies House ensures Welsh speaking staff are available in all areas to examine Welsh filings or respond to Welsh customers. We are also planning to try and recruit more Welsh speakers in this space.
Internally promote Companies House바카라 사이트™s requirements under the Welsh Language Scheme, ensuring staff understand their responsibilities and where to seek assistance	Ongoing	Welsh language Unit/Strategy and Policy	We regularly made staff aware of our commitment to our Welsh Language Scheme on our internal intranet site. The Welsh language Unit have also been holding Welsh awareness sessions with the different teams, ensuring that all the teams know the correct systems to follow with the Welsh customers. The Welsh Language Unit has now also created a permanent page on the Intranet site containing guidance for each area, a copy of our Welsh Language Scheme and a list of Welsh speakers in each area.
Maintain Welsh team in Companies House to provide cover for Welsh speaking customers and hold regular meetings to discuss issues and progress	Ongoing	Welsh Language Unit/Customer Delivery	The Welsh team continued to provide cover and meet regularly.

8.3 Publicity campaigns, exhibitions, advertising and press releases

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
Ensure Welsh speakers attend all events at which there is a Companies House presence in Wales	Ongoing	Events team	No events have taken place during this time period.
Ensure Welsh literature is available at events held in Wales	Ongoing	Events team	No events have taken place during this time period.
Ensure adverts and press releases are available in Welsh, when published in Wales	Ongoing	Human Resources/ICT	Now that Civil Service Jobs is available in Welsh, we have started by advertising in Welsh for our operational officer role. We plan to build on this going forward.

8.4 Publications and forms

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
Ensure Companies House Welsh publications are updated in parallel with English versions	Ongoing	Strategy and Policy	Companies House continues to ensure that Welsh publications are updated at the same time as English publications.
Ensure Welsh statutory forms are updated in parallel with English versions	Ongoing	Strategy and Policy	Companies House continues to ensure that Welsh forms are updated at the same time as English forms.
Monitor usage of letters to ensure Welsh versions are used where appropriate	Ongoing	Business Change Development	Companies House continues to monitor usage of letters to ensure a response is provided in Welsh where required. Throughout the period our customer delivery support team have reviewed the provision of our Welsh letters.

8.5 Websites

Ensure the Welsh website is updated in parallel with the English version, when relevant, and that the information on the Welsh website is up to date	Ongoing	External communications/Welsh Language Unit	We continued to increase Welsh content on 바카라 사이트. The Welsh language Unit monitor this and have regular meetings with the external communications team.
Social Media	Ongoing	External communications/Welsh Language Unit	We ensure that Welsh X and Facebook posts are posted on a weekly basis. This is important to encourage more Welsh customers to communicate with us in Welsh. We have a message on both platforms to say that we welcome correspondence in Welsh.

8.6 Face to face meetings

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
Ensure that customers can request a Welsh speaker should they wish to conduct their business in Welsh	Ongoing	Welsh Language Unit/Customer Services	No face to face meetings happen anymore but we can offer this service over Microsoft Teams.

8.7 Telephone communications

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
Ensure that customers who want to conduct their business in Welsh can speak to a Welsh speaker	Ongoing	Contact centre/Customer Services/Welsh Language Unit	There바카라 사이트™s a system in place to make sure that the customer can communicate with us in their language of choice. The Welsh language Unit hold regular meetings with the contact centre and all the departments to make sure that this system is effective.

8.8 Signs

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
Ensure that all public signage for the Cardiff office is displayed bilingually	Ongoing	Building Services/Welsh Language Unit	All public signage is produced bilingually.

8.9 Complaints

Action required	Target date	Action owner	Progress to date/notes
To ensure complaints about Companies House바카라 사이트™s Welsh Language service are fully investigated and dealt with promptly, in line with the Companies House normal complaints procedure	Ongoing	Welsh Language Unit	Complaints section of the report.
Monitor complaints regarding bilingual service	Ongoing	Welsh Language Unit	The Welsh Language Unit monitors all complaints regarding the bilingual service as per the complaints section of the report.