The UK Government has published The British Sign Language (BSL) report 2023-24, which details what it is doing to promote and facilitate the use of British Sign Language (BSL) in its communications with the public, which the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) has responded to.

The British Sign Language (BSL) Act 2022 received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. It was introduced to the House of Commons as a Private Members’ Bill by Rosie Cooper MP and gained cross-party and government support.

The BSL Act legally recognises BSL as a language of England, Scotland, and Wales but not Northern Ireland, where equality law is devolved. It also requires the government to report on the use of BSL by the ministerial departments named in the schedule to the BSL Act in their public communications.

To ensure relevancy, the BSL Act requires that a report will be published every three years. The first BSL report was published on 31 July 2023.

At the time, the Conservative Government committed to publishing a report every year for the five years to follow. However, publication of the second annual report, which had been planned for July 2024, was delayed by the UK General Election.

The current Labour Government says it is strongly committed to continuing to improve the accessibility of government communications for everyone, including the deaf community and BSL users.

This report therefore covers BSL usage in government communications from 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2024. The publication is voluntary and aims to increase transparency and support further increases in accessibility.

The report does not represent the formal publication of the data for the 2023 to 2024 reporting year. A formal statutory report will be published in July 2025, which will include data for the two reporting years from May 2023 to April 2025.

The UK Government says everyone in the country should have access to important information from the government and should be able to engage with the government on issues that will affect them. It says that is why it is crucial to make sure that government communications are as inclusive and accessible as possible.

RNID believes this report shows that there is still a long way to go to ensure equal access to government communications for the deaf community.

Michael Quinlan, Advocacy Manager at RNID, said: “Today’s report shows welcome progress in British Sign Language (BSL) provision across government departments; however, it’s a stark reminder that there is still clearly a long way to go to ensure equal access to government communications for the deaf community.

“Whilst it’s encouraging to see that BSL activity has more than doubled, the fact that five government departments have yet to provide any communications in BSL shows that improvements fall well short of providing an inclusive service for people who are deaf.

“It is also disappointing to see a lack of any new commitments from the Labour Government to improve BSL provision in its communications within the report’s recommendations.

“We are calling on the government to do more to improve the way it communicates with BSL users, and we urge them to press ahead with the departmental five-year plans which will set out how they each will improve BSL provision within their departments.

“We also call on the government to do more to hold departments to account and fulfil their legal requirements to provide departments with guidance to improve their BSL provision.

“Government communications are vital for people to find out about what support is available and the opportunities there are to feed into policy developments. It is essential that these communications are accessible to everyone, including the deaf community.”

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