Written question asked by Kerry McCarthy (Labour) on Friday, 8 June 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 12 June 2007. It was answered by Lord Prescott (Labour) on Thursday, 21 June 2007 on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Departments: Sign Language

Question: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the merits of providing British Sign Language (BSL) videos on his departmental website for the benefit of those whose first language is BSL.

Answer: Following the recognition of British Sign language (BSL) as a language in its own right in March 2003, the Government committed £1.5 million funding for 10 projects designed to improve the infrastructure supporting BSL tutors and to raise awareness of the communication needs of Deaf BSL users among employers, service providers and in the wider community. The aim is for the outputs from the projects to have a lasting and sustainable impact. There are no videos on my departmental website.

Secondary information