The government understands the great importance of British Sign Language (BSL) for bridging barriers to communication between hearing and deaf people and appreciates the vital need for families with deaf children to be able to access BSL courses, as early access to language is essential to help children learn and thrive.

Funding is available through DWP’s Adult Skills Fund (ASF) for qualifications in or focussing on BSL, up to and including level 2. The ASF fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. 68% of the ASF has been devolved to 13 Strategic Authorities, who determine which provision to fund for learners who live in their areas. The DWP provides the remaining funding for learners who live in non-devolved areas.

The DWP funded BSL qualifications include, for example, the Level 1 Award in BSL which allows learners to communicate in BSL on a range of topics that involve simple, everyday language use, thereby giving them the basic skills and confidence in production and reception of BSL. It will depend on an individual’s circumstances as to whether they are entitled to free provision or expected to meet part of the cost through co-funding. Where tailored learning providers offer BSL courses, those providers are responsible for determining the course fees, including levels of fee remission. For qualifications at Level 3 and above Advanced Learner Loans are available for certain BSL qualifications.

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.

To facilitate clear and effective communication in emergency situations, individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired can utilise tools such as the 999BSL video relay platform, both app and web-based, to contact 999 via a BSL interpreter as well as access via emergency SMS messaging.

Video relay apps can also be used to support communication and face-to-face assessment by crews on scene at incidents, where, via on-board iPads, paramedics can connect patients with a remote BSL video interpreter. These resources, which are free to use and operate 24 hours, seven days a week, ensure that real-time communication is possible for BSL users when emergency and urgent assistance is required.

The BSL Advisory Board was established in 2023, to advise the Government on key issues impacting the Deaf community in their everyday life. On 27 November 2025, the BSL Advisory Board published a report titled Locked out: Exclusion of deaf and deafblind BSL users from health and social care in the UK, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bsl-user-experience-of-health-and-social-care-in-uk/locked-out-exclusion-of-deaf-and-deafblind-bsl-users-from-health-and-social-care-in-the-uk-full-report-bsl-and-english-versions

The Government welcomed the report, and thanked the BSL Advisory Board for their work to improve the accessibility, inclusion, and the experiences of Deaf and Deafblind BSL users within the health and social care system. The board’s recommendations are informing work to implement the 10-Year Health Plan and to reform adult social care so we can deliver improvements to the health, care, and the experience of Deaf people.

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.

To facilitate clear and effective communication in emergency situations, individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired can utilise tools such as the 999BSL video relay platform, which is both app and web-based, to contact 999 via a BSL interpreter as well as access via emergency SMS messaging.

Video relay apps can also be used to support communication and face-to-face assessment by crews on scene at incidents, where, via on-board iPads, paramedics can connect patients with a remote BSL video interpreter. These resources, which are free to use and operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ensure that real-time communication is possible for BSL users when emergency and urgent assistance is required.

The BSL Advisory Board was established in 2023, to advise the Government on key issues impacting the Deaf community in their everyday life. On 27 November 2025, the BSL Advisory Board published a report titled Locked out: Exclusion of deaf and deafblind BSL users from health and social care in the UK, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bsl-user-experience-of-health-and-social-care-in-uk/locked-out-exclusion-of-deaf-and-deafblind-bsl-users-from-health-and-social-care-in-the-uk-full-report-bsl-and-english-versions

The Government welcomed the report, and thanked the BSL Advisory Board for their work to improve the accessibility, inclusion, and the experiences of Deaf and Deafblind BSL users within the health and social care system. The board’s recommendations are informing work to implement the 10-Year Health Plan and reform adult social care so we can deliver improvements to the health, care, and experience of Deaf people.

The department supports British Sign Language (BSL) as an important part of our inclusive education strategy. While BSL is not currently part of the national curriculum, schools are free to teach it if they wish, and many already do to meet the needs and interests of their pupils.​

The government, working with the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), has also developed the content and assessment arrangements for a new BSL GCSE and is actively encouraging exam boards to develop qualification specifications. We have written to the exam boards to encourage them to seize the opportunity to offer this high-quality qualification to ensure young people can study BSL at GCSE. The development of a BSL GCSE is an important step toward fostering greater recognition of BSL as a language. It will give young people the chance to develop fluency in BSL and to explore its rich history as a language, helping to break down barriers between deaf and hearing communities.

Policing is operationally independent, and it is for Chief Constables to ensure that their forces are able to communicate effectively with all members of the public, including those who use British Sign Language.The National Police Language Services (NPLS) team oversees the procurement and provision of language and interpretation services for police forces across the UK.

In accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and the British Sign Language Act 2022, ambulance services have a range of options to support Deaf/deaf individuals who use British Sign Language (BSL) in accessing ambulance services.

To facilitate clear and effective communication in emergency situations, individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired can utilise tools such as the 999BSL video relay platform, which is app and web-based, to contact 999 via a BSL interpreter as well as access via emergency SMS messaging. Video relay apps can also be used to support communication and face-to-face assessment by crews on scene at incidents, where, via on-board iPads, paramedics can connect patients with a remote BSL video interpreter.

These resources, which are free to use and operate 24 hours, seven days a week, ensure that real-time communication is possible for BSL users when emergency and urgent assistance is required.

Although the Department collects information on the medical condition(s) of Access to Work customers and the types of support they are awarded and claim payment for, we are unable to link awarded support elements to specific medical conditions without manually examining individual case notes. It would therefore incur a disproportionate cost to identify what support, if any, customers receiving a ‘BSL Interpreter’ have been awarded in relation to medical conditions other than ‘Difficulty in hearing’.

Statistics on the number of people in receipt of payment for Access to Work support and average annual payments per person, by support worker type which includes a category for ‘BSL Interpreter’ are published in tables PAY02 and AVG02 of the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2025 - GOV.UK. Table 1 summarises these figures:

Table 1. Number of customers in receipt of payment and average annual payment received per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter between financial years 2020/21 and 2024/25

Notes

• Numbers of people have been rounded to nearest 10 and average annual payments to nearest £100.
• Real terms expenditure removes the effect of inflation to make year-on-year comparisons more informative, these figures are quoted in 2024/25 prices

We do not hold this information in a way that can be extracted. Identifying such cases would require a manual review of individual awards, which would incur disproportionate cost.

Please find the Official statistics on payments and approvals which are published annually and can be accessed here: Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK

The department does not hold information or data on the availability of Communication Support Workers, or their qualification levels in British Sign Language.

However, all education and training providers, as well as other related service providers, have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. They must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage.

The department has predominantly looked at text to British Sign Language translation tools, reviewing information from the main players in this field, Signapse, Robotica and Silence Speaks and engaging with our primary supplier for generative articifical intelligence, Microsoft.

The Department and its public bodies have not yet directly taken steps to develop or use artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to British Sign Language. However, as described in both our Transport artificial intelligence action plan - GOV.UK and our DfT science, innovation and technology plan 2025 - GOV.UK, the Department has used its First of a Kind funding programme to support innovative AI projects like Signapse Ltd’s mobile app that uses AI to turn timetable and station information into British Sign Language for deaf customers.

The Department’s Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) programme provides early‑stage funding for proof‑of‑concept transport innovations. To date, only one TRIG project has focused specifically on British Sign Language and passenger communications: the 2022 Luna Personal Sign Language Avatar Assistant, which developed a prototype enabling passengers to access wayfinding and journey information in BSL on their own devices. This project received a £30,000 grant from the Department.

The Department does not hold information on the amounts spent by train operating companies or other station operators on these systems. Network Rail have advised that they currently use pre‑recorded British Sign Language (BSL) videos rather than AI‑generated signing, following feedback from the Deaf community. Network Rail has also indicated that it has invested in providing BSL content in stations; however, the Department does not hold verified figures for this expenditure.

Deaf-led BSL suppliers play an important role in supporting Deaf communities right across the country.

Customers can access BSL services through agreements RM1557.14 G-Cloud 14 and RM6302 Language Services.

CCS has approved funding to support an ‘AI for BSL’ project, led by the Royal National Institute of the Deaf (RNID) partnership with ScienceWise. The initiative ensures that Deaf communities can directly influence the development of future tools to guarantee their safe and effective application.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), including Innovate UK, has a portfolio of over £1 billion in AI research and innovation, with a further £1.6 billion allocated across 2026/27 to 2029/30. UKRI’s AI investments build broad, foundational technologies that could extend to BSL applications even when not explicitly stated.

Details of UKRI investments in AI technologies that could be used to create accessible content with regards to British Sign Language (BSL) can be found on GTR, which provides information on all UKRI-funded research and innovation projects. These include an £8.45m investment in SignGPT, which aims to build the first generative predictive transformer for sign language and has direct involvement from Deaf organisations and community partners.

There are currently no projects approved by British Technology Investments and the Government Office for Science.