Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate his Department has made of the (a) employment rate (b) unemployment rate and (c) rate of economic inactivity among people of working age who use British Sign Language as their primary language.
We hold no estimate of the employment rate, unemployment rate, or rate of economic inactivity among working age people who use British Sign Language (BSL) as their primary language.
The Government has a range of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health conditions, including those who use BSL as their primary language, to start, stay and succeed in work. These include:
To tackle rising economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, we announced a wide-reaching package at the Spring Budget to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work. New investment will provide faster access to joined-up work and health support, including for mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two leading causes of economic inactivity due to long-term sickness.