Essentially BAFTA said the United Kingdom had no obligation to submit a film in the category and argued that neither of the two films submitted were "outstanding" enough to represent the UK in the category.
This was really a foolish decision, because many countries are perfectly aware that they will not get a nomination, but they use the category to gain publicity for foreign-language films that might not otherwise get a chance to be seen internationally.
Also, while MOST of the films submitted by the UK have been in Welsh, the United Kingdom has also submitted one film in Russian (before the rule stating films had to be in an indigenous language of the UK) and in Hindi ("The Warrior", which was disqualified for violating the above rule). This rule has now been changed, and I would expect the UK will be open to submitting foreign-language stories about British immigrant communities in future (as Australia has done three times by submitting "Floating Life", "La Spagnola" and "Home Song Stories")
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