Deaf News: UK Government fails to respond to claim letters over #WhereIsTheInterpreter

Deaf activists are preparing to apply to the courts for the release of the UK Government’s equality impact assessments of its coronavirus briefings, with Number 10 yet to respond to claims sent at the start of May.

Over 260 pre-action letters were sent to Downing Street by law firm Fry Law last month, requesting compensation for the lack of a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter at the Government’s press conferences on COVID-19.

Lynn Stewart-Taylor, founder of the #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign, tweeted: “I’m disappointed that Downing Street has not acknowledged the letters of claim. I will not give up!

“Who’s with me to prepare the next action?”

In a statement to The Limping Chicken, lawyer Chris Fry said: “We are very disappointed that Downing Street has not acknowledged the letters of claim and we are now preparing an application to the Court for disclosure of the equality assessments for the Briefings.”

If the application is granted, it will see the release of Government documents which consider the potential impact of a policy or decision on equality. Mr Fry also added that campaigners are ‘still focused on getting an interpreter live’ with the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, a BBC spokesperson told The Limping Chicken that they have no plans to extend their provision of a BSL interpreter, which currently appears only on BBC News, to BBC One.

The spokesperson said: “We are really pleased that we are able to offer this service to the government and other broadcasters to complement our own BSL service on the BBC News Channel and BBC iPlayer.

“We have been in regular contact with organisations representing deaf people to highlight the availability of signing on BBC News and we have had positive feedback about the provision of this service.”

The statement follows a tweet from Government minister Penny Mordaunt last week, who said the BBC has agreed to make its BSL interpreter available ‘to all broadcasters’.

Update on #BSL for daily briefings. BBC has agreed to make available the interpreter feed to all broadcasters. Feed will also soon be on all govt social media live videos from each press conference. BSL could therefore be on all coverage live and recorded. 🙏 to all who helped.

— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) May 21, 2020

However, a spokesperson for ITV News said: “As we’re not a 24-hour news service, we don’t run the press conference live and as such we don’t have a BSL interpreter on our programmes.”

The Limping Chicken asked a follow-up question to ITV around whether news packages on the daily briefings would be signed on ITV News’ evening bulletins, but did not receive a response.

Meanwhile, Sky News said discussions are ongoing on the matter. Channel 4 News did not respond to our requests for comment.

For Deaf people using social media, daily BSL coronavirus news updates can be found via BSL Zone’s social media channels.

The sharing of the BBC’s sign language feed was called for by the British Deaf Association (BDA), in a letter sent to the Prime Minister at the end of March.

The charity also requested that the current sign language provision for the UK Government’s briefings be broadcast live on BBC One ‘as this will reach far more Deaf people’.

When approached by The Limping Chicken for a statement, the BDA said it is continuing its call to have a BSL interpreter visible on the channel.

“We will continue to make the case for this because it is the most watched channel for news and provides wider access especially those who do not have Freeview or other channels,” they said.

Photo: Lynn Stewart-Taylor.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and blogger from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

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Update: Speaking to The Limping Chicken, Lynn Stewart-Taylor has said she is ‘disappointed’ at the Government’s lack of a response to the claim letters sent in May.

She said: “I am surprised, because I had hoped they would reply and it would all be sorted – that was my hope. I don’t want to keep arguing back and forth, on and on, that’s not my intention.

“I am surprised there was no response, and that they’ve left us with no choice. So now we have two options: we “dither”, carry on being treated like second class citizens, or we fight and go forward.

Thank you Liam. #WhereIsTheInterpreter . A Question to organisations.. BBC spokesperson "We have been in regular contact with organisations, we have had positive feedback about the provision of this service.” Is this correct? Have they been contacting you? https://t.co/YjH7ThAVp4

— Lynn Stewart-Taylor (@jerseysnail) June 4, 2020

On the BBC’s statement saying they have ‘no plans’ to provide British Sign Language interpretation on BBC One, in addition to the BBC News channel, Lynn said she wants to know why.

“Give us one good reason, to help us understand and to try and find a solution. If it’s ‘no’, then why are you so against our preferred channel? There’s no clarification, or details.

“If they said it’s because of technology, maybe I’ll think, ‘okay’, but ‘no, this, that’s it’? It doesn’t make sense,” she said.

A follow-up letter about the claims made in May was sent to the UK Government on Thursday morning, giving them 14 days to provide information about their consideration for Deaf people “before any interpreting was provided”.

If the Government fails to respond, campaigners will then apply for a court order forcing them to release it.