Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2019 to Question 872, what the timescale is for the development of the GCSE in British Sign Language; and whether his Department has set a deadline for its implementation.

The Department has not set a deadline for the implementation of a GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL).

Implementing a GCSE in BSL requires the draft subject content to meet the rigorous requirements that apply to all GCSEs. If the content meets these criteria, at least one independent awarding organisation will need to develop a specification and have it accredited by Ofqual before a GCSE in BSL can be offered in schools. At this stage, the Department is not able to predict if or when this will happen, but we have indicated that our clear aim is to have a BSL GCSE available as soon as possible.