Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the provision of British Sign Language interpreters within emergency services.

Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters to support deaf patients.

To facilitate clear and effective communication in emergency situations, individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired can utilise tools such as the 999BSL video relay platform, both app and web-based, to contact 999 via a BSL interpreter as well as access via emergency SMS messaging.

Video relay apps can also be used to support communication and face-to-face assessment by crews on scene at incidents, where, via on-board iPads, paramedics can connect patients with a remote BSL video interpreter. These resources, which are free to use and operate 24 hours, seven days a week, ensure that real-time communication is possible for BSL users when emergency and urgent assistance is required.

The BSL Advisory Board was established in 2023, to advise the Government on key issues impacting the Deaf community in their everyday life. On 27 November 2025, the BSL Advisory Board published a report titled Locked out: Exclusion of deaf and deafblind BSL users from health and social care in the UK, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bsl-user-experience-of-health-and-social-care-in-uk/locked-out-exclusion-of-deaf-and-deafblind-bsl-users-from-health-and-social-care-in-the-uk-full-report-bsl-and-english-versions

The Government welcomed the report, and thanked the BSL Advisory Board for their work to improve the accessibility, inclusion, and the experiences of Deaf and Deafblind BSL users within the health and social care system. The board’s recommendations are informing work to implement the 10-Year Health Plan and to reform adult social care so we can deliver improvements to the health, care, and the experience of Deaf people.