Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will bring forward legislative proposals to apply in England provisions equivalent to those of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 .

Existing equality legislation already means employers, service providers and public bodies have to provide services in BSL and other formats when it is reasonable to do so. The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies to have due regard to the needs of all those with protected characteristics, We don’t think new legislation would add to that. However, we are looking at developments in Scotland and will learn lessons in order to inform our thinking for England and Wales.