Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to amend the Accessible Information Standard so that it is aligned with the recommendation of Healthwatch England to cover the needs of those who speak little or no English.

We have no current plans to make such a change to the Accessible Information Standard (AIS). The AIS aims to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get information that they can access and understand. NHS England is responsible for the AIS and has completed a review as part of the revision of the standard.

Spoken and community languages are specifically excluded from the AIS and have not been included as part of its review due to the legislative basis of the AIS and its focus on meeting the needs of disabled people.

The General Medical Council’s guidance states that all possible efforts must be made to ensure effective communication with patients. This includes arrangements to meet patients’ communication needs in languages other than English. Where language is a problem in discussing health matters, NHS England and NHS Scotland’s guidance states that a professional interpreter should always be offered.

NHS England is aware of safety investigations and other issues relating to translation services and has completed a strategic review and options appraisal to identify if and how NHS England can support improvements in the commissioning and delivery of community language translation and interpretation services.