Deaf News: Judicial review over #WhereIsTheInterpreter put on hold

The deaf activist behind the campaign to have a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter present at UK Government briefings has confirmed their judicial review has been put on hold.

Lynn Stewart-Taylor, who launched #WhereIsTheInterpreter in March, shared the update in a Facebook livestream on Tuesday.

She said: “We’ve decided it would be better to put this on hold, because there are no briefings. But, in October, they will have new briefings similar to America.”

“So I will write to the Government asking them to make sure they have an interpreter present. If there isn’t one, then we will try and challenge.”

It follows reports earlier this month that the Prime Minister plans to broadcast new daily briefings later this year – similar in style to that of the White House.

The sessions would replace the current set-up, which sees political correspondents briefed every day by Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson off-camera.

The Limping Chicken has contacted 10 Downing Street about the proposals and whether a BSL interpreter would be provided, but is yet to receive an official response.

Lynn went on to add that the decision didn’t mean that plans for the judicial review had been dropped.

“I’m not giving up, it’s on hold – that’s the plan going forward,” she said.

The legal challenge was revealed last month, which also saw campaigners give the Government a deadline to respond to more than 270 claims from deaf people.

The letters requesting compensation were sent by lawyers Fry Law to Number 10 in May.

The first wave of 260 pre-action letters leaving Fry Law to ⁦@10DowningStreet⁩ #WhereIsTheInterpreter ⁦@jerseysnail⁩ ⁦⁦@johnpringdns⁩ ⁦@ASLIuk⁩ ⁦@NRCPD⁩ ⁦@Limping_Chicken⁩ ⁦@BritishDeafNews⁩ ⁦@BDA_Deaf⁩ ⁦@UKDeafCouncil⁩ pic.twitter.com/QwxEmxe0do

— Chris Fry (@FryLegal) May 6, 2020

Lynn confirmed that Chris Fry from the organisation would be contacting each individual who filled in a compensation form to request more information about their experiences.

She continued to say that it wasn’t too late to fill in the form and that the details would allow them to research “what areas we want to focus on”.

“We would like to capture those instances to help us present them to the Government. It means they can think about how [the lack of a British Sign Language interpreter] has affected us.”

More information, including a video of the livestream, can be found on Where Is The Interpreter’s official Facebook page.

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