Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 21
Fourth report: Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full Report
Published 22 Dec 2020
Paragraph 127
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We agree with organisations representing Deaf British Sign Language users that we should set a good example in the accessibility of our public oral evidence sessions. It is regrettable that we did not provide live BSL interpretation and subtitles via www.parliamentlive.tv, particularly as we were scrutinising the accessibility of the Government’s communications during the pandemic. It is reasonable and proportionate for BSL users to request that interpretation and subtitles are provided in these circumstances. There are technical difficulties, which are beyond this Committee’s control, to overcome before this can be achieved. We recommend the Liaison Committee of the House of Commons review the adequacy of funding, technical capabilities and expertise available to support live BSL interpretation and subtitles of select committee proceedings on www.parliamentlive.tv. We further recommend that the House of Commons Commission make it an objective to ensure that a greater proportion of the coverage of the House is fully accessible to Deaf people via the provision of live BSL interpretation and subtitles of debates.
From: Women and Equalities Committee, Fourth report: Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full Report (HC 1050), paragraph 127, 22 December 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 April 2021.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and sets out measures taken during the pandemic, while declining some recommendations and committing to publish the National Strategy for Disabled People in Spring 2021.
- On a statutory Code of Practice on the Public Sector Equality Duty, the government says it "does not see any compelling need to depart from the normal preference of its predecessors against additional statutory codes of practice".
- On publishing assessments of disabled people's food needs, it says that, "in line with the practice of successive administrations", it "does not routinely publish EIAs".
- On the SEND review, the Department for Education "intends to publish proposals for consultation in the spring of 2021", saying the pandemic "has unavoidably delayed" the review.
- On an independent inquiry and social care reform, it says there will be "opportunities to look back" at COVID-19 but is "focused entirely" on the response for now, and will "bring forward proposals this year" on adult social care.