Health Services and Social Services: British Sign Language Advisory Board
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made for the potential implications for his policies of the BSL Advisory Board report on Health and Social Care, published on 27 November 2025.
Answered by Dr Zubir Ahmed
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters to support deaf patients in the community.
We welcome the British Sign Language Advisory Board’s report titled Locked out: Exclusion of deaf and deafblind BSL users from health and social care in the UK. We will carefully consider its recommendations, including how, in the context of our work on the 10-Year Health Plan and reform of adult social care, we can improve the experiences of Deaf people when accessing health and care services and experience of Deaf people.
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