Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to protect and preserve (a) BSL Health Access and (b) other services that aide deaf people in accessing NHS services, particularly during the covid-19 outbreak.

All National Health Service providers are required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in the Equality Act 2010 and the Accessible Information Standard to ensure that deaf people who wish to communicate using British Sign Language (BSL) to access NHS services can do so.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have extended access to BSL interpretation of their 111 service via Interpreter Now. NHS England and NHS Improvement have also commissioned a rapid review into access to BSL interpretation in NHS services which is near completion. The review will set out clear steps to support NHS providers to meet their responsibilities to deliver access to BSL interpretation.