Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2025
I am pleased to contribute to this afternoon’s debate.
Ten years ago, the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 became an important step towards promoting British Sign Language in Scotland and improving the lives of all who depend on BSL. I therefore welcome the inquiry into the 2015 act by the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. I know that BSL users face challenges across many different aspects of society, and it is important that the British Sign Language national plan delivers on the proposals that came from the 2015 act.
The testimony that was received during the committee’s inquiry makes it clear that progress has indeed been made on the issue, and that is to be commended. However, that testimony also made it clear that individuals still face many barriers, for example in relation to access to education, health or employment.
It is unsurprising that education was one of the biggest policy areas that the inquiry looked at, as deaf children still face challenges at every stage of our education system. The committee heard evidence that, although the number of BSL interpreters has increased, they cannot be a replacement for teachers who are native BSL users.
Deaf Links highlighted that there has been
“a dearth of appropriately trained Deaf BSL tutors in Scotland”
for the past 30 years. That is having an impact on the development of BSL users. As the ALLIANCE has stated and as many members have highlighted in the debate, that can have a lifelong impact on individuals.