Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England will continue to fund BSL Health Access; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have commissioned a rapid review into access to British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation in the National Health Service which is near completion.

All NHS providers must comply with the public sector equality duty set out in the Equality Act 2010 and the Accessible Information Standard to ensure that deaf people who wish to communicate using BSL can do so. NHS England and NHS Improvement have extended access to BSL interpretation of their 111 service via Interpreter Now.