Skip to main content

This petition was submitted during the 2017 to 2019 Parliament

View other petitions from this Parliament

Closed petition Legislate to recognise all native languages of Britain & Ireland as co-official

Closed on

Lack of official status of any language leads to English being the 'de facto' official language of the UK. This absence of legislation leads to discriminatory policy, denying other indigenous languages equal status in the UK, thereby discriminating against speakers of those languages.

This petition would like to see the following languages recognised as official in UK law: Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Scots (both of Scotland and Ulster), Welsh, Cornish, Angloromani, Shelta, British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language and English.

Co-official status in law brings UK laws with linguistic focus in line with the European Convention on Human rights:

Article 5 - Right to Liberty and Security, Clause 2
Article 14 - Prohibition of Discrimination
Protocol Number 12, Article 1 - General prohibition of discrimination, Clause 1.

811 signatures


Petition progress

View all updates for this petition, with the most recent first.

  • Petition closed

  • Petition published

    This petition can now be signed.

    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 6 November 2019.