Cookies on Legislation.gov.uk

The cookies on legislation.gov.uk do two things: they remember any settings you've chosen so you don't have to choose them on every page, and they help us understand how people browse our website, so we can make improvements and fix problems. We need your consent to use some of these cookies.

Search Legislation

Advanced Search

British Sign Language Act 2022

Contents

Commentary on provisions of Act

Chapter 1: Declaration recognising British Sign Language

Section 1: Recognition British Sign Language

  1. Section 1(1) recognises that British Sign Language is a language of England, Wales and Scotland. It does not extend this recognition to Northern Ireland as there are two distinct sign languages used in Northern Ireland - British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language. Irish Sign Language is not in the scope of this Act.
  2. Section 1(2) ensures that the Act does not affect the operation of any enactment or rule of law; in particular, the recognition does not affect the framework of protections provided by the Equality Act 2010 (including the duty to make reasonable adjustments). However, the recognition of British Sign Language is linked with new duties on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to carry out certain obligations.

Chapter 2: Duties relating to the promotion and facilitation of British Sign Language

Section 2: Duty of Secretary of State to report on British Sign Language

  1. Subsections (1) and (2) provide a specific duty on the Secretary of State to prepare and publish a "British Sign Language report". This is a report describing what each ministerial department (listed in the Schedule to the Act) has done to promote and facilitate the use of British Sign Language in their public communications.
  2. Subsections (3) and (4) detail the types of communication that should be collected and reported on. The report is not intended to include detail about individual requests for British Sign Language interpretation services in front-facing operational delivery as a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010, for example in health or education settings, ports, police stations, courts, Jobcentres, workplaces etc.
  3. The report would not include any personal communications with individuals that may have been translated into British Sign Language (e.g. ministerial letters to individuals, Freedom of Information requests, ‘Treat Official’ correspondence or meetings with ministers or officials where there has been a request for a British Sign Language translator).
  4. It is not intended that the information included in the report would be highly detailed (for example, the percentage of the total types of communication created). But it might, for example, set out how many press conferences held by ministerial departments listed at Schedule 1 had BSL interpretation.
  5. Subsection (5) provides that the Secretary of State must not include in the report information about communications that relate only to Scotland and do not relate to reserved matters; and must not include in the report information about communications that relate only to Wales and do not relate to reserved matters.
  6. Subsection (6) requires the Secretary of State to publish the report no more than three months after each reporting period ends.
  7. Subsection (7) defines when the first report should be published and at what intervals thereafter. In practice, the information required from ministerial departments will be requested on an annual basis to help inform reporting purposes and show changes over time. This approach allows ministerial departments the opportunity to build on good practice, share knowledge and increase the provision of British Sign Language interpretation where statistical returns suggest it is necessary to do so.
  8. The information will be collated by the Cabinet Office Disability Unit and published at least every three years. The reports will be made available in BSL and published on GOV.UK. It is possible that the collated reports will be published more frequently to align with UK disability reporting.
  9. Subsection (8) defines what is meant by a ‘relevant government department’. It is one of the ministerial government departments listed in the Schedule to the Act. Subsection (9) gives the Secretary of State power to amend this list by regulations. This power is intended to only be used where there are ‘machinery of government' changes that may merge government departments or if, for example, a specific part of a ministerial department's portfolio were decoupled from its current department and formed a new ministerial department in its own right.

Section 3: Guidance on use of British Sign Language

  1. Subsection 3(1) requires the Secretary of State to issue guidance on the promotion and facilitation of British Sign Language. It is intended that the guidance will be created with the involvement of the non-statutory board of British Sign Language signers that will advise the Secretary of State on its format and content. This board will convey the perspectives and priorities of those with lived experience, from BSL signers living across England, Scotland, and Wales. It is the intention of the Secretary of State to establish this as a non-statutory board.
  2. The guidance will be focused on the use of BSL in the public sector. However, there could be general information describing the grammatical form and linguistic approach to BSL, alongside descriptions of challenges experienced by BSL signers which may be of wider interest. Subsection 3(2) provides for the areas that the guidance may cover. These will include:
  • How government departments will comply with the request to report on their activities in relation to British Sign Language as set out at section 2 of the Act.
  • Information on best practice for communicating with Deaf British Sign Language signers in both ministerial departments’ communications (as set out in section 2 of the Act), and also for operational delivery purposes - for example in Jobcentres, health and education settings, courts and other public sector settings.
  • Case studies illustrating the benefits of providing British Sign Language interpretation in communications with the public.
  1. Subsection 3(3) provides that the guidance must not include advice or material which relates only to Scotland and does not relate to reserved matters; and must not include advice or material which relates only to Wales and does not relate to reserved matters.
  2. Subsection 3(4) prescribes that the guidance issued by the Secretary of State must be published.

Chapter 3: General

Section 4: Extent, commencement and short title

  1. Subsection 4(1) extends the provisions in the Act to England and Wales and Scotland.
  2. Subsection 4(2) provides that section 4 will commence on the day that the Act is passed.
  3. Subsection 4(3) provides that the provisions in sections 1 and 2 and the Schedule will commence two months after the Act receives Royal Assent.
  4. Subsection 4(4) provides that section 3 of the Act (Guidance on the use of British Sign Language) comes into force on a date to be specified by the Secretary of State.
  5. Subsection 4(5) states that the Act may be cited as the British Sign Language Act 2022.

Schedule: Relevant government departments

  1. The Schedule sets out the relevant ministerial departments in respect of which the Secretary of State must prepare and publish a British Sign Language Report.

Back to top