Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Prime Minister will make an assessment of the potential merits of making Downing Street subject to the reporting requirements of Section 2 of the British Sign Language Act 2022 on a voluntary basis.

We are committed to ensuring that government communications are available and accessible across multiple channels and in a number of alternative formats in order to meet a range of needs.

British Sign Language interpretation is provided for the vast majority of No.10 press conferences via the BBC News channel (available on Freeview) and iPlayer through the BBC. For No.10 press conferences that do not carry British Sign Language interpretation via the BBC, a British Sign Language interpretation is uploaded on YouTube as soon as possible after the event.

The first Government BSL report was published in July 2023, and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-british-sign-language-bsl-report-2022/the-british-sign-language-bsl-report-2022

The Government will be publishing a second report on the use of BSL in government communications by 31 July 2024.

No. 10 is an operational part of the Cabinet Office, which is a relevant government department under Section 2 of the Act.