Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the proposed Framework Agreement for language interpretation services (a) on British Sign Language users and (b) generally; and what steps he plans to take to monitor the effects of that Agreement.

Through our commercial reforms the Government is delivering better value services at a lower cost. The new Language Services Framework Agreement will provide users of British Sign Language translators with a high-quality, cost-effective service that maintains national interpreting standards. Following extensive customer engagement over the past year, the Crown Commercial Service has amended the specification of requirements to address the points raised by stakeholders, including organisations representing the hearing impaired, users, suppliers and industry.

The current specification, together with an update including responses to a number of frequently asked questions will be published shortly on GOV.UK.