BSL Act Now: British Sign Language Bill discussion reveals UK Government changes

An early draft of the British Sign Language (BSL) Bill included Northern Ireland; referenced tactile sign language users; highlighted BSL as an official language and mentioned its connection to the Deaf community – before it was changed by the UK Government.

The revelations were made by David Buxton, chair of the British Deaf Association (BDA), on Monday, as part of a panel discussion on Rosie Cooper MP’s BSL Bill which passed its second reading in the Commons last month.

“Northern Ireland was in our draft Bill, but the Government have answered that particular question, and the reason they are not in this Bill is primarily to do with the devolution settlement in Northern Ireland and secondly, there is legislation going through Stormont.

“It’s in the process of going through Stormont, which is going to incorporate both BSL and ISL [Irish Sign Language], importantly, and that’s the very sensitive landscape of Northern Ireland as per the Good Friday Agreement – that it shouldn’t be for Westminster to legislate any language rights, especially that’s purely about British Sign Language, and then impose that on Northern Ireland,” Mr Buxton said.

He also went on to add that the BDA is “unhappy” with the removal of sign language being the language of the Deaf community from the Bill, and that the inclusion of tactile sign language users is on their list of things they would like to see corrected on the current version.

Mr Buxton said: “The civil service wouldn’t allow us to put in the Bill that BSL is an official language of the United Kingdom, and that is primarily because there are no official languages of the UK.

“Welsh, for example, is not an official language of the UK. It is recognised as a language, but it is not an official language. There are no official languages of the UK, so as a result we agreed to make a tweak and we changed the wording in the bill that BSL was the primary language of the Deaf community in the UK.”

Despite raising concerns over omissions, Mr Buxton said they were “completely understandable” as Ms Cooper requires government support for her Bill.

“I think one of the difficulties we’ve had is the limitations of a Private Members’ Bill.  A lot of it has been very delicate and trying to ensure the government stay on board.  Rosie has been very clear that we need to be quite delicate with what we are or are not saying, because we really do want to have that support,” he said.

The BDA chair also warned of “burning political bridges” by “withdrawing” support for the Bill, adding that national charities “need” the relationships with politicians. He also stressed the limited timeframe for the Bill to pass.

He continued: “With Private Member’s Bills, the timetable is fixed – it cannot be extended.  If you go past the last date available [25 March…] the whole thing falls apart.

“So the more discussions that we have, the more amendments that we need to introduce, the longer time this will take and the risk increases that we run out of time. I think we should see this [draft] as a good first step.

“It creates a mechanism whereby we can have ongoing dialogue with the Government moving forward.  As soon as this is passed, I think all Deaf organisations will have to work together to put forward and put in place monitoring mechanisms where we can – with evidence – explain how this Bill (hopefully Act), is or is not working, and we can provide that evidence to Parliamentary committees moving forward.

“But we can only do that to committees – Parliamentary committees – if we have our foot in the door.”

This was however met with caution by Dr Gearóidin McEvoy, a sign language researcher from the University of Birmingham, who warned that “no change has happened” around sign language legislation in countries such as Finland and New Zealand as a result of the ‘foot in the door’ approach.

“These Bills, they get passed into acts and then that’s it.  That’s not to say that activism can’t happen, because changes in law happen when there is strong grassroots activism.

“I would be cautious about suggesting that getting your foot in the door is a way to increasing rights.  It may well be, but from a research and data perspective, so far that has not shown to be true in other places.”

Dr McEvoy recently gained attention from the Deaf community for a blog post analysing the current draft of the Bill, which she claimed that the Bill in its current form “has the potential to be not very much bark at all, and certainly no bite”.

She told attendees of the panel discussion: “For this Bill, because of the nature of it being a Private Members’ Bill, it’s not possible to spend money on it – and without spending money, essentially you can’t make it this wonderful Bill of Rights.

“[The Bill] separates BSL from the users of BSL – from the Deaf community – and that’s a fallacy in itself, because how does the language exist without the community who use it?

“It doesn’t.  So I think that’s, for me, quite disappointing.“

Feedback was also given by Jeff McWhinney, former CEO of the British Deaf Association who previously described the current draft of the Bill as “tokenistic”.

Speaking during Monday’s discussion, Mr McWhinney said the Bill “does not mention individuals’ rights” to BSL, the proposals should be “more robust” and that they should “go further”.

“What’s pivotal about this Bill is language. Language is intrinsically linked to culture, which is intrinsically linked to values.

“I think for the Government, they are thinking about providing access via interpreters only. It seems to be that that’s what’s on their mind.

“They just see interpreters […] but for us, it’s about getting Deaf people in various roles, getting access in our language, and having that BSL access – it shouldn’t just be about interpreters,” he said.

With Mr Buxton warning of a limited timeframe to get the Bill passed, The Limping Chicken asked him if he had raised the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill with the UK Government – a Bill which grants Deaf BSL users the right to serve as a juror, but has also attracted controversy for its restrictions on the right to protest.

Ahead of the Second Stage of the BSL Bill being discussed in the House of Commons tomorrow, I've written up some initial thoughts on the content of the Bill. Here they are: https://t.co/lrNEzJTEJU#BSLAct #BSLActNow

— Dr Gearóidín McEvoy (@GaRoDean) January 27, 2022

He replied: “We’re really pleased on the one hand, of course, because it finally makes provision for Deaf people to be on a jury, which is excellent news, and it opens that door.

“The Government realised that the Equality Act didn’t actually make for that adjustment. It was termed to be an unreasonable adjustment, and I was going to take the Government to court for a judicial review on the matter, but it got put into this Bill.

“The bad news is the Government seeking to stifle protest.  Now that’s a problem, clearly.  Part of our democratic fabric in the UK, spanning hundreds and hundreds of years, has always been the civil right to be able to protest when we believe that decisions are wrong.

“I don’t think that because of that negative aspect the positive aspect is somehow overshadowed in some way.  We’ve got to hope, and it seems like the Lords will […] try to get rid of that particular clause.”

Meanwhile, in response to what learnings the BSL Act Now campaign can take from the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015, Dr McEvoy told The Limping Chicken that there “seems to be an ad hoc attitude” towards the production of BSL plans which creates a “postcode lottery”.

“Some people get really good services and others don’t because there isn’t this one standard mandate, and so I think that’s something to consider going forward,” she said.

The BSL Bill is now due to be discussed line-by-line at the committee stage, which is scheduled to take place on 23 February.

The BDA says it has commissioned two authors to produce a report on changes they would like to see made to the Bill, with the intention of submitting it to the Parliamentary committee and for MPs to make adjustments.

The full panel discussion is available to view with captions and BSL interpretation on Facebook.

Photo: British Deaf Association/Facebook.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

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Update – 08/02/2022 – 10:00: Mr McWhinney has informed The Limping Chicken that he did not say he was concerned about the omission of the word ‘Deaf’ from the Bill, and as such, we have removed a line from this piece which previously said he found this “troubling”.

He added that he stated “it’s great that [the Bill] is focused on the language rather than the disability” and as a result, Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs) are included. He called for a move away from the medical model towards a linguistic and cultural model.