UK Government faces another legal challenge following inaccessible Partygate press conference

A lawyer representing Deaf campaigners has been instructed to issue another legal challenge against the UK Government over inaccessible press conferences – it has been revealed.

Solicitor Chris Fry confirmed the news to The Limping Chicken just hours after criticising Downing Street for failing to provide a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter for its Partygate briefing on Wednesday.

In a tweet to reporter Liam O’Dell on Friday, Mr Fry wrote: “I have now been instructed to make a further legal challenge on this.”

I have now been instructed to make a further legal challenge on this.

— Chris Fry (@FryLegal) May 27, 2022

The new lawsuit is separate to one concerning more than 270 compensation claims over uninterpreted Covid briefings, which are yet to receive a court date.

Alongside not appearing on Downing Street’s social media channels, BBC News – who provided BSL interpretation for the majority of the UK Government’s Covid briefings – chose not to interpret the press conference on Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties during lockdown.

The Limping Chicken understands the BBC News Channel is not able to provide BSL interpretation for all events in Parliament, or other Downing Street press conferences.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We continue to work hard to ensure our content is accessible to all audiences across our channels. Subtitles are provided for all our live TV output on BBC News and a BSL interpreter is available for parts of our coverage during the day, including the BBC News at One.”

Meanwhile, it’s understood that non-ministerial press conferences have seen No 10 use a third party company to provide BSL on its social media channels, but that the decision was taken not to stream Wednesday’s press conference on its platforms.

Whether or not a press conference is streamed on Downing Street’s social media, with BSL interpretation or otherwise, is determined on a case by case basis – The Limping Chicken understands.

Further details about the fresh legal challenge are yet to be confirmed.

Photo: Number 10/Flickr.

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 – 28/05/22: In an email confirming she was the one who instructed Mr Fry, Deaf actress Katie Rowley (also known as Katie J Redstar online) told The Limping Chicken: “After taking the cabinet to judicial review for the lack of BSL provision and winning on discrimination grounds, seeing how they believe subtitles are good enough angered me at the time.

“We’ve also had the BSL Act printed with BSL becoming a recognised legal language. It’s upset me even more that this [inaccessible briefing] took place after the BSL Act passed.

“All in all the Cabinet Office have no intention or interest in being accessible or inclusive to the BSL community – what a shambles of a country we live in.

“As a deaf BSL user I feel worthless of our country. I feel left behind, an afterthought, and most of all I feel it’s my right and duty to keep fighting for my rights and my BSL community’s rights when they aren’t being met.

“This also sets an example to the younger generation that we don’t sit back and let people that run the country walk all over us, exclude us, to stand up and fight.”