Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on the implementation of a GCSE in British Sign Language.

The new British Sign Language (BSL) GCSE is a key feature of our commitment to enhancing the status of BSL in education and society.

The department published subject content for the BSL GCSE in December 2023.

As is the usual process for introducing a qualification, the independent qualifications regulator, Ofqual, is currently running a public consultation on its proposed assessment arrangements and expects to confirm its decision on the qualification rules in autumn 2025. At this point, any exam board that chooses to offer the GCSE will be able to start developing specifications.