Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that workplaces promote and facilitate the use of British Sign Language.

Provision for accessing services by users of British Sign Language (BSL) are covered by the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty. Equality legislation means that 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, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the needs of a range of protected characteristics, including disability.