BSL Act Now: Amended British Sign Language Bill passes committee stage

Labour MP Rosie Cooper’s British Sign Language (BSL) Bill has passed the Commons committee stage, with one amendment made to the long title of the proposed legislation.

The West Lancashire MP’s Bill, which had its second reading last month, grants legal status to BSL and places duties on government departments to report on the work they have done to “promote and facilitate” the use of the language.

Under its original long title, the Bill said it would “declare British Sign Language (BSL) an official language of the United Kingdom; to provide for a British Sign Language Council to promote and advise on the use of BSL; to establish principles for the use of BSL in public services; to require public bodies to have regard to those principles and to guidance issued by the Council; and for connected purposes.”

However, at committee stage on Wednesday, an amendment was tabled by Ms Cooper to change this to become “[a Bill to] recognise British Sign Language as a language of England, Wales and Scotland; to require the Secretary of State to report on the promotion and facilitation of the use of British Sign Language by ministerial government departments; and to require guidance to be issued in relation to British Sign Language.”

An explanatory statement accompanying the amendment reads that it brings the long title of the Bill in line with its contents.

MPs voted unanimously to pass the amended Bill, while its short title, the British Sign Language Bill, remains unchanged.

The Bill has been voted through the committee stage, with no changes bar the aforementioned amendment to its long title. Report stage up next before the third reading. #BSLActNow #BSLBillCommittee

— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) February 23, 2022

Speaking at the start of the session, Ms Cooper described her Private Members’ Bill as “one that will truly make a difference for the deaf community”.

“It is indeed unfortunate that a few people have questioned changes to the Bill and misattributed the changes to a supposed weakening of the original Bill.

“Many Deaf organisations will want the Bill to go further and these are things which can be examined later in the advisory body and such things like that.

“Today is not a drop dead day, today is the beginning,” she said.

The backbencher went on to reference a report last week around the numbers of Teachers of the Deaf hitting a record low, saying new guidance issued as part of the BSL Bill would mean individuals will now be able to “directly single out problems like this” and “make it clear” what is needed “to give deaf children the equal access to quality education which they deserve”.

“In hospitals, medical professionals will no longer be able to use the excuse when they fail to provide a qualified interpreter. With guidance in place, it will be clear throughout the health service what requirements they should be meeting to facilitate BSL users,” she continued.

Ms Cooper concluded by noting a “powerful cultural shift” towards “understanding and accepting BSL across the UK”, calling on her colleagues to capitalise on the momentum and get the Bill onto the statute books.

In their contributions, former ministers Mike Penning and Maria Eagle addressed the challenges posed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in terms of securing BSL recognition at the time, with Mr Penning claiming he received “pushback after pushback” while Minister for Disabled People.

Ms Eagle, who was minister when the government officially recognised BSL in 2003, added that officials in the DWP “really genuinely saw BSL as a distraction from learning to lipread”.

“They saw no cultural issues. They had no understanding that there was a Deaf culture.

“They weren’t horrible people or evil people. In my understanding, they simply had not had enough connection and dealings with Deaf people – pre-lingually Deaf people – to understand there was a culture.”

Maria Eagle speaking now after a short comment from Mike Penning. Speaking of her time as a former disabilities minister: "[The DWP] really genuinely saw BSL as a distraction from learning. They saw no cultural issues. They had no understanding that there was a Deaf culture."

— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) February 23, 2022

Elsewhere, Conservative Peter Aldous, the constituency MP for campaigners Ann and Daniel Jillings, brought attention to the ongoing BSL GCSE campaign.

After acknowledging that “you have to take time to get the curriculum right”, Mr Aldous said: “It is taking rather a long time. The pilot by Signature was carried out in 2015, we’re now seven years hence and Daniel will soon be leaving school and he won’t be able to take the GCSE in BSL while at school.

“So can I just urge [Ms Smith] to really emphasise to the Department for Education the need to get on with this because it really will mean a great deal to people like Daniel, and it will give them an opportunity and will help get an early window […] for the objectives of this Bill.”

Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Vicky Foxcroft MP, also spoke in support of the Bill and said of its sections on guidance: “I believe [it] will improve the delivery of many services and help BSL users overcome the current limitations of the Equality Act, which sadly means that many providers don’t know how to make reasonable adjustments for them.

“While I welcome the positive strides of the Bill, I know many of my colleagues like me will seek something to make sure that we build on,” she said.

The Lewisham and Deptford MP went on to comment on the government’s data on Deaf people.

“As it stands the government does not capture sufficient data to give us a clearer picture of the Deaf community. Current statistics catch people based on terms such as ‘difficulty in hearing’ and ‘hearing impairment’.

“The use of ‘impairment’ is itself unhelpful and outdated, and may impact negatively on how BSL users respond.

“In short, the government does not really know how many deaf people use BSL, and this is concerning give it that it uses this data as its evidence base for making decisions about how to support BSL users – a great group of people that face some of the biggest barriers in society,” she continued.

Ms Foxcroft also moved on to address the non-statutory board of BSL users, adding: “While I warmly welcome his commitment to consult deaf people, we must ask why the body advising on such an important issue is a non-statutory board.

“Does this mean ministers do not have to listen or act upon its recommendations?

“Sadly, the government does have a poor record when it comes to doing the right thing by disabled people, and it would be remiss of us not to consider strengthening the Bill with adequate checks and balances.”

Ms Foxcroft raises concerns over the section which says "subsection one does not affect the operation of any enactment or rule of law".

"Trust in this government is low with disabled people, and I don't think that provisions like this will fill the deaf community with hope."

— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) February 23, 2022

Responding to Ms Foxcroft’s concerns over clause 1.2 of the Bill, which states the recognition of BSL in England, Wales and Scotland “does not affect the operation of any enactment or rule of law”, the Minister for Disabled People said it was in place to provide “legal certainty”.

“[This is] so that recognition of BSL would not generate confusions or disputes […] In particular, the purpose and effect of [it] is to leave the existing balance of legal protections of the Equality Act 2010 unaffected and I think that is something that is very important,” Ms Smith said.

The minister also agreed with Lilian Greenwood MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness, that government reports on the work departments were doing to promote BSL should be debated in government time, confirming she would pass on the point to her party’s Chief Whip and the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Ms Smith also mentioned a series of non-statutory measures brought forward in the Bill, including the advisory board, increasing the number of BSL interpreters, reviewing and updating Access to Work and updating the National Disability Strategy to “facilitate and promote BSL users”.

The Tory MP confirmed officials in the DWP have been asked to look at the advisory board’s composition and remit, with the aim of confirming details “as we go through the summer of this year”.

On BSL interpreters, she said: “We’ve already agreed, of course, in this Bill that the Bill will recognise BSL, now that has the objective of increasing access to BSL interpretation, so therefore we need to look behind the scenes to make sure that we have the right capacity there to support BSL users.”

She continued to say NHS providers “already have a legal duty to meet the needs of Deaf people” through the Equality Act and the Accessible Information Standard, with the BSL Bill intending “to aid them in doing that”.

In response to Mr Aldous’ comments on the BSL GCSE campaign, Ms Smith said: “The Department for Education is at the moment working with subject experts to develop that content […] and with Ofqual to ensure that the content can be assessed.

Ms Smith comments on the BSL GCSE points by Peter Aldous MP, and says the DfE is "working with subject experts to develop that content for a BSL GCSE" and says they plan to consult publicly on the contents "later this year". #BSLActNow #BSLBillCommittee

— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) February 23, 2022

“They aim to consult publicly on the drafts of their content later this year in 2022, and ahead of this committee I’ve written to the Minister for School Standards [Robin Walker MP] at the Department for Education to see what more can be done to accelerate that piece of work.”

It follows an announcement by the sign language qualifications body Signature in October, where they said a public consultation on the subject content will take place in the “first half” of this year.

Concluding the session, Ms Cooper stressed the Bill “is not a silver bullet for all the ills of the Deaf community, so let’s be clear, it never could be”.

“No one understands the problems of Deaf people – the problems they face – more than Deaf people themselves. We will now hear those people.

“We will now hear what they’ve got to say. We have a chance to help them too, and in so doing, they will help us as a society.

“The Deaf community have so much to offer. They’ve been silenced, sidelined and ignored for too long. The Bill will finally remove many of the barriers they face and allow them to make a huge contribution to society and even a contribution to the advisory body that will advise ministers.

“What we need to do now is to get it through, start making the difference, and […] we need to get on with it,” she said.

The BSL Bill will now move to report stage, a date of which is yet to be confirmed.

The full committee session is available to view with BSL interpretation on the ParliamentLive.tv website, while a written transcript of the discussion can be found in Hansard.

Photos: UK Parliament.

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.