Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that British Sign Language interpreters are available to people who need to access medical care.

All National Health Service organisations are required to comply with the Accessible Information Standard and meet the information and communication support needs of patients, service users, carers and parents with a disability, impairment or sensory loss, including providing British Sign Language (BSL).

NHS England and NHS Improvement have put in place several measures to ensure disabled people’s communications needs have not prevented them from receiving the care and treatment they need. This includes a BSL interpreter for NHS 111, access to interpreters, communication toolkits for staff, clear mask personal protective equipment as well as a range of easy read materials to simplify communications.