Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who use Access to Work for the provision of British Sign Language interpretation receive funding for an additional condition to difficulty in hearing.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Although the Department collects information on the medical condition(s) of Access to Work customers and the types of support they are awarded and claim payment for, we are unable to link awarded support elements to specific medical conditions without manually examining individual case notes. It would therefore incur a disproportionate cost to identify what support, if any, customers receiving a ‘BSL Interpreter’ have been awarded in relation to medical conditions other than ‘Difficulty in hearing’.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many users of Access to Work received funding for a British Sign Language interpreter in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what was the average cost per person of those awards.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statistics on the number of people in receipt of payment for Access to Work support and average annual payments per person, by support worker type which includes a category for ‘BSL Interpreter’ are published in tables PAY02 and AVG02 of the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2025 - GOV.UK. Table 1 summarises these figures:
Table 1. Number of customers in receipt of payment and average annual payment received per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter between financial years 2020/21 and 2024/25
Financial Year | Number of customers in receipt of payment for a ‘BSL Interpreter’ | Average annual payment per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter’ (£ nominal) | Average annual payment per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter’ (£ 2024/25 prices) |
2020/21 | 2,810 | 12,700 | 14,900 |
2021/22 | 2,890 | 15,200 | 17,900 |
2022/23 | 2,940 | 16,600 | 18,300 |
2023/24 | 3,170 | 17,200 | 17,900 |
2024/25 | 3,210 | 18,200 | 18,200 |
Notes
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many users of Access to Work who receive funding for British Sign Language interpreters have had their awards expire before their renewal is processed.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not hold this information in a way that can be extracted. Identifying such cases would require a manual review of individual awards, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Please find the Official statistics on payments and approvals which are published annually and can be accessed here: Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of Communication Support Workers for deaf (a) school, (b) college and (c) university students.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold information or data on the availability of Communication Support Workers, or their qualification levels in British Sign Language.
However, all education and training providers, as well as other related service providers, have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. They must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the qualification levels in British Sign Language of Communication Support Workers working with deaf (a) school, (b) college and (c) university students.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold information or data on the availability of Communication Support Workers, or their qualification levels in British Sign Language.
However, all education and training providers, as well as other related service providers, have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. They must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help ensure that digital projects, such as OneLogin, are accessible for deaf people and people with hearing loss who use his Department's services.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is committed to providing accessible digital services for all our customers in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Within this legislation DWP is working to ensure that services conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA. DWP is continuing to onboard some services to the Government Digital Services One Login programme. The accessibility statement for this service is available at: https://signin.account.gov.uk/accessibiliity-statement
For deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL), DWP has published a 5-year plan to improve BSL services. This includes reviewing digital channels and platforms to improve accessibility for BSL users. DWP is committed to providing suitable methods of communication for customers who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. The Video Relay Service allows DWP to communicate with customers via a BSL interpreter using a video connection. DWP also has a dedicated DWPSign channel containing many BSL videos on benefits and services. All published video and audio content has closed captions or a transcript.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many PIP assessments required the use of (a) an interpreter and (b) translation services in the period since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Functional Assessment Service contracts launched on 9 September 2024. Between then and the end of January 2026, across all delivery areas, a total of 230,000 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments were completed with a translator present.
This includes British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language and lip speaking services, and is not limited to spoken language interpretation.
These numbers are based on completed assessments by either face-to-face, telephone or video where a request for an interpreter or translator was met and are rounded in line with statistical disclosure protocols.
Prior to September 2024, the department does not hold this data for all delivery areas in the outgoing assessment contracts.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her department is taking to ensure the online DVLA application process is accessible to all.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s (DVLA) online services currently adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) and work is underway to bring all services to WCAG 2.2 level AA status to attain full compliance with the most recent accessibility requirements.
Customers can contact the DVLA digitally, by telephone or in writing. The DVLA offers a variety of reasonable adjustments to customers which can range from simple adjustments like providing correspondence on coloured paper or in large print, to providing a video relay service for British Sign Language users who want to contact the DVLA via telephone.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 105675 on NHS: Hearing Impairment and Visual Impairment, what steps his Department is taking to improve accessibility of NHS services for Deaf BSL-users following the recommendations of the BSL Advisory Board’s Locked Out report.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want disabled people’s access to, and experience of, healthcare services to be equitable, effective, and responsive to their needs. The 10-Year Health Plan specifically identifies disabled people as a priority group for the development of neighbourhood health care, offering more holistic ongoing support, noting the health inequalities they face.
NHS England is rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag which enables the recording of key information about a disabled patient or client, and the reasonable adjustments to care and treatment that they need, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately and equitably. Under a new information standard, published on 19 December 2025, all publicly funded health and social care service providers must be able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. This would include anyone who is a Deaf British Sign Language user, and anyone with another disability.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many formal complaints relating to accessibility or communication barriers at DVLA have been received in the last three years; and what steps are being taken to help improve accessibility for vulnerable or disabled users.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on the number of formal complaints relating to accessibility or communication barriers at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) over the last three years is not readily available.
The DVLA offers a variety of reasonable adjustments to customers which can range from simple adjustments such as providing correspondence on coloured paper or in large print, to providing a ‘Video Relay Service’ for British Sign Language users who want to contact the DVLA via telephone.
As part of fulfilling its obligations under the Equality Act 2010, the DVLA’s contact centre agents are trained to assist customers who may require reasonable adjustments. Operating instructions and knowledge articles help staff to ensure they follow the correct processes to identify the most suitable form of support for the customer, depending on their individual needs.
For customers who do not want or are unable to use the telephone, a webform service is also available to customers 24/7. The DVLA is also planning to launch a WhatsApp service.
Although the DVLA continues to develop its digital channels to improve customer service and support offerings, it recognises not all customers want or are able to transact digitally and provides paper application facilities as appropriate.