British Sign Language (Wales) Act 2026

3 National BSL strategy

(1) In order to fulfil the duty under section 2, the Welsh Ministers must prepare and publish a national strategy (a “BSL strategy”).

(2) The BSL strategy must—

(a) describe how the Welsh Ministers intend to—

(i) promote and facilitate the use of BSL in the exercise of their functions;

(ii) encourage listed public bodies to promote and facilitate the use of BSL in the exercise of their functions (including by giving guidance under section 4);

(b) include targets to increase or maintain—

(i) the number of BSL translators and interpreters available for the purpose of exercising the functions mentioned in paragraph (a), and

(ii) the number of persons available for the purpose of teaching and assessing those BSL translators and interpreters;

(c) set out what information about the use of BSL in Wales was obtained and considered for the purpose of preparing the strategy.

(3) The Welsh Ministers must—

(a) publish the BSL strategy within 18 months beginning with the day after the date on which this Act is brought into force;

(b) review the BSL strategy at least once in every period of 6 years beginning with the day after the strategy is first published and, if they revise it, publish the revised version.

(4) The Welsh Ministers must—

(a) lay the BSL strategy, and any revised version of it, before Senedd Cymru, and

(b) ensure that it is available in BSL.

(5) In preparing the BSL strategy, and any revised version of it, the Welsh Ministers must involve—

(a) the BSL adviser (see section 6),

(b) such representatives of BSL signers as the Welsh Ministers consider appropriate, and

(c) any other persons the Welsh Ministers consider appropriate.

(6) The requirement to involve the persons mentioned in subsection (5) includes—

(a) providing them with an opportunity to make representations about the content at the beginning of the process,

(b) seeking their views at a formative stage of preparing a draft proposal, and

(c) otherwise involving them throughout the process by—

(i) providing sufficient information to enable them to properly consider what is proposed, and

(ii) providing sufficient time to enable them to adequately consider what is proposed and respond.