Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has considered setting national minimum standards for British Sign Language interpreter provision across all courts.

The Ministry of Justice has set national minimum standards for British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter provision across courts through the Language Services Contract. All interpreters must be registered with a voluntary National Regulator for Language Service professionals, with the minimum qualification standard for court work being a Level 6 BSL qualification.