(, ) is the executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government with responsibility for Gaelic. It was established by an Act of the Scottish Parliament in 2005 (which took effect in early 2006) and is based in Inverness.
Structure
is a non-departmental public body constituted of members of the board, whose role is "to provide leadership, direction, support and guidance" to the body, and staff who are typically full-time public sector employees and who carry out the day-to-day work of the body. The head of the board is the (chairperson) and the head of the staff is the (chief executive).
The current is ; a non-native Gaelic speaker, she studied the language at the University of Edinburgh and and had worked at the for twenty years prior to taking over the office in June 2016.
History
In 2006 was designated as the body responsible for implementing the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 and specifically, as stated in the Act, "securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language". The Bòrd represents a cornerstone of the Scottish Government's implementation of their duties under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The first of the eight member was (Duncan Ferguson) from Islay, rector of Plockton High School, former convenor of , , and director of the steering committee for BBC Gaelic programming. In March 2012, following the resignation of Arthur Cormack, who had been appointed in February 2009 after holding the position of interim Chair from July 2008, Elizabeth McAtear was appointed by the as interim Chair before the full recruitment process for a replacement Chair.
thumb|Place names in their original [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic are becoming increasingly common on road signs throughout the Scottish Highlands.]]
See also
- Languages of Scotland
- Language revitalization
- Columba Project
- , all-Ireland agency set up to promote the Irish language under the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.