Meeting of the Parliament 10 March 2016
I lodged amendment 23 on the back of a recent briefing paper from the Law Society of Scotland. The Law Society noted that, although section 1 refers to communication that is made orally, the bill does not define the word “orally”. It further noted that the plain dictionary definition of “orally” refers to verbal communication. Like the Law Society, I would welcome clarification from the Government of whether the bill covers British Sign Language and other forms of communication that are equivalent to the spoken word.
During the passage of Mark Griffin’s member’s bill on British Sign Language, I, along with my colleagues on the Education and Culture Committee, learned that BSL is a living, thriving language in our community. If we truly recognise BSL as a language, as that bill does, it stands to reason that that language will be used to engage in the political process in ways that represent the community involved.
It is only logical to include BSL in the Lobbying (Scotland) Bill as oral communication. Amendment 23 is a technical amendment that would keep the Parliament’s commitment to those we serve in the BSL community, who are looking towards equality of communication. With that in mind, I ask members to support the amendment.