Territorial extent and application
- Section 4(1) provides that the provisions of the Act extend to England and Wales and Scotland only. The Act explicitly recognises British Sign Language as a language of England and Wales and Scotland. The Act does not extend to Northern Ireland. This approach broadly aligns with that taken in the Equality Act 2010.
- The devolution settlements for both Scotland and Wales provide that equal opportunities is a reserved matter. However, there are significant exceptions to this. In particular, the encouragement of equal opportunities (other than by prohibition or regulation) is devolved to Senedd Cymru and the Scottish Parliament. The recognition of language is also devolved to the Senedd and the Scottish Parliament.
- Section 2 requires the Secretary of State to prepare and publish a report on what ministerial departments have done to promote or facilitate the use of British Sign Language in their public communications. The Scottish and Welsh governments are not subject to the reporting duty. The Secretary of State’s report will not concern communications about matters that only relate to Scotland and do not relate to matters that are reserved to the UK Parliament. Similarly the report will not concern communications about matters that only relate to Wales and do not relate to reserved matters. Section 3 requires the Secretary of State to issue guidance about the promotion and facilitation of the use of BSL. Similarly, the guidance will not include advice or material which relates only to Scotland or Wales and does not relate to matters that are reserved to the UK Parliament.
- The Act does not impose the two duties (to report and to issue guidance) on the Devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales.
- The Act does not affect the operation of the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015.
- See the table in Annex A for a summary of the position regarding territorial extent and application in the United Kingdom.
