British Sign Language Report 2025-26

Stephen Timms Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms)]

This ministerial statement is also available in British Sign Language here at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUrDclFi9M01

This Government recognise the need for continuous improvement in the accessibility of Government communications for everyone, including the deaf community and BSL users, The British Sign Language (BSL) Act 2022 supports this by creating a greater recognition and understanding of BSL, and requires the Government to report on what Departments listed in the Act have done to promote or facilitate the use of British Sign Language in their communications with the public.

The first report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-british-sign-language-bsl-report-2022/the-british-sign-language-bsl-report-2022 was published on 31 July 2023, the second report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/british-sign-language-bsl-second-report-2023-to-2024/the-british-sign-language-bsl-report-2023-to-2024 on 17 December 2024—delayed due to the UK general election—and the third report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/british-sign-language-bsl-third-report-may-2024-to-april-2025 on 21 July 2025

The fourth BSL report, covering the period from 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026, has now been published. A copy of this fourth report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/british-sign-language-bsl-fourth-report-may-2025-to-april-2026 will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on gov.uk, including in BSL.

The Government are committed to ensuring that Government communications are as inclusive and accessible as possible. For this reason, although the BSL Act requires only that a report will be published every three years, the Government committed to increase the frequency of reporting to an annual basis for the five years up to 2027.

This is also why, last year, to accompany the publication of the third BSL report, each ministerial Department was asked to produce a five year BSL plan https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/british-sign-language-reports-and-action-plans setting out how they plan to improve the use of BSL within their Departments. An update on those plans is published alongside this report.

This fourth report demonstrates an increase in the usage of BSL by Government Departments in public-facing communications since last year, reaching the highest number recorded since reporting started in 2023. The overall number of new BSL communications produced by Government Departments has increased by 41%—from 140 to 198—since the last reporting period and by 161% since the first reporting period, when overall numbers were 76.

This Government want to ensure disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of all we do. Government communications being accessible to deaf and disabled people is essential in supporting us to achieve this goal. This is why it is particularly encouraging to see that there has been an uplift in the amount of Government publications that have been translated into BSL. This includes plans, strategies, consultation documents or consultation responses. There has been an increase in the total number of these types of communications produced since the last reporting period, from 26 in 2025 to 87 in 2026.

By providing deaf BSL users with direct access to Government plans and consultations, this increase in accessible communication supports the Government commitment to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to engage with the Government on issues that will affect them.

However, we know there is still more to do and this Government are committed to going further. We will continue to work alongside the BSL Advisory Board https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/british-sign-language-bsl-advisory-board deaf people and their representative organisations, and Ministers across Government, including our lead Ministers for disability https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/lead-ministers-for-disability to continue to make tangible improvements for the deaf community.

We will continue to publish a report every year up to 2027, going further than the frequency required by the Act. The next report will be published in July 2027.

[HCWS248]