Government minister refuses to confirm if Cabinet Office provides guidance on BSL signers at media events (BSL)

A Cabinet Office minister has failed to confirm whether his department provides any guidance on the number of individuals requiring British Sign Language (BSL) at government press events.

Jeremy Quin, the Conservative MP for Horsham and Paymaster General, responded to a written Parliamentary question on sign language on Monday – one which was posed by Labour politician and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness, Lilian Greenwood.

The Nottingham South MP asked: “What guidance [does] his department [provide] on the sizes of the audience at (a) his and (b) other official media events that require British Sign Language interpretation under the Equality Act 2010?”

In his reply, Mr Quin did not address whether the Cabinet Office provides such guidance and instead said there is “no minimum audience size for which British Sign Language interpretation must be provided”.

“However, BSL interpretation is provided for the vast majority of No 10 press conferences through the BBC. Speeches from the Prime Minister outside of Parliament are also made available in transcript form on GOV.UK,” he wrote.

The UK Government has previously come under fire for its reliance on communications in written English for Deaf people, as it is not the first language of many British Sign Language signers.

Mr Quin continued: “The Government Communication Service continues to ensure cross-government teams comply with the Equality Act 2010 when undertaking any form of public communication, including making early decisions on reasonable adjustments and the provision of accessible formats such as BSL.”

It comes as The Limping Chicken has revealed no discussions were had by civil servants about providing BSL for three speeches by former Prime Minister Liz Truss in September and October, or for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s mini-budget reversal statement in November.

This was just one of four written questions tabled by Ms Greenwood, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a press conference setting out his priorities for the year ahead without any BSL interpretation being made available.

“I guarantee that your priorities are my priorities,” he said, despite a BSL version of the PM’s speech being uploaded to YouTube more than two days later.

In another written question, Ms Greenwood asked Mr Quin what steps have been taken by him to make Mr Sunak’s press conferences and speeches outside Parliament “accessible to British Sign Language users”.

The Cabinet Office minister responded: “The Government is committed to ensuring government communications are available in an accessible format. British Sign Language interpretation is provided for the vast majority of No.10 press conferences through the BBC. In addition, speeches by the Prime Minister outside of Parliament are published on GOV.UK.

“Training is provided to members of the Government Communication Service on accessible communications, including digital comms.”

The final two questions from Ms Greenwood related to a report by the Women and Equalities Select Committee from 2020, which explored the “unequal impact” of COVID-19 on disabled people.

As part of that document, the group of MPs said the government should “fully implement the accessible ‘shopping list’ put forward by disability charities” such as the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID).

Ms Greenwood asked if Mr Quin would “make an assessment of the potential benefits of making the accessible communication checklist” a legal requirement for government departments, and what steps the Cabinet Office is taking to “implement the recommendation” of an accessibility checklist.

In both responses, the minister referred the Labour MP to a previous answer given to the Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Vicky Foxcroft MP, and added: “As outlined in our response to the Fourth Report, the Government Communication Service (GCS) is leading efforts to support departments in enhancing the accessibility of their communications so key messages are available to all audiences.

“This forms part of the Government’s commitment to ensure all communications are in an accessible format.”

A court case over whether 276 Deaf people should be compensated for nine inaccessible Covid briefings at the start of the pandemic in 2020 is ongoing, with a London County Court judge currently considering the claim’s legitimacy.

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.