News Date: Tuesday 12th February 2008
Tim meets Prime Minister to call for greater support for British Sign Language.
In his capacity as member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness, East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton met the Prime Minister on 6th February to ask the Government to give British Sign Language the legal status enjoyed by other indigenous British languages, such as Welsh and Cornish; to improve access to services, employment and cultural activities for sign language users by training more interpreters and making better use of technology; and to provide support for families to enable them to communicate better with their deaf children.
Other members of the delegation included the Chief Executive of the National Deaf Children's Society Susan Daniels and Malcolm Bruce MP and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness. They explained to the Prime Minister the proposed changes that would contribute to sign language users being able to fully participate in society.
Tim commented:
"British Sign Language is an indigenous language of Britain used by about 50,000 people as their first or preferred language and by a further 200,000 people in everyday communication. We must make sure that we support and promote sign language so that deaf people can communicate effectively, access information and influence the world around them.
"I was delighted to meet the Prime Minister to discuss this issue very important issue and was impressed by the attention he gave our meeting."
As a result of the meeting the Prime Minister has asked Andrew Adonis, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools and Learners, the Minister responsible for collecting the data on the achievements of deaf pupils, to look at the issues raised by Tim and the rest of APPG delegation.
ENDS
