Petitions Committee call on Government to rethink response to petition on making emergency announcements more accessible

5 May 2020

The Chair of the Petitions Committee, Catherine McKinnell MP, has written to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport asking him to reconsider his department's response to a petitioner who called for emergency announcements from the Government to require British Sign Language interpreters.

The letter, addressed to Minister Oliver Dowden MP, calls for the Government to revise their response to a petition after the Petitions Committee determined the initial response wasn't direct enough.
The correspondence also calls on the Government to provide a detailed explanation of why they haven't arranged their own BSL interpretation for daily Ministerial Coronavirus updates.

Addressing the DCMS Minister, the Petitions Committee Chair said "the Government's response to this petition does not adequately address the petitioner's request, so I am writing to ask you to provide a revised response, that more directly responds to the petition's clear request for the Government to require British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters for emergency announcements on TV."

Referring to how other Governments around the world have provided interpretation of emergency Coronavirus announcements, Ms McKinnell added: "It is not clear why the UK Government has not done the same, or even acknowledged in its response to this petition that this is something the Government could do."

The Petitions Committee Chair closed her letter with a plea to the Government, adding "I urge the Government to take time to reconsider its decision not to facilitate BSL translation itself for coronavirus statements in order to ensure that people who use BSL are able to fully participate and receive crucial information and updates during this difficult and concerning time."

Earlier this year [5 February 2020], the House of Commons Broadcasting Team celebrated a landmark moment as for the first time in history Prime Ministers Questions was broadcast live on Parliament.tv with BSL interpretation as part of a trial.

In 2018 the Petitions Committee made history when a debate they scheduled became the first debate to be broadcast with live simultaneous BSL interpretation. The debate was on a petition started by Sign Language performer and TV and radio presenter Wayne Barrow. In his Petition, Wayne argued "Around 50,000 people in the UK use British Sign Language, so why is this not taught in schools?"

You can read the full Government response to the petitioner on the petition website. Read the full letter from the Petitions Committee criticising the response on the Petitions Committee website here.