Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of children who learn British Sign Language in primary school.

The department does not collect information on the number of pupils who learn British Sign Language (BSL) in primary schools as it is not a mandatory subject for schools in England.

The schools national funding formula (NFF) distributes funding for primary and secondary mainstream schools in England. Funding is distributed fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. Within the NFF, the department does not allocate funding specifically for British Sign Language resources and teaching (nor for any other subjects), and school leaders have flexibility over how they use their budgets to support the attainment and progress of their pupils. They may, if they choose, include BSL in their curriculum or offer it as an extra curriculum subject.