British Sign Language (BSL) is set to become a recognised language after the government backed a campaign by a Labour MP.
Rosie Cooper‘s Private Member’s Bill aiming to include BSL interpreters in public service announcements as standard was passed on Friday after having its second reading in the House of Commons.
This means BSL is set to become an officially recognised language across the whole of the UK – it currently only holds that status in Scotland. People will have a legal right to a BSL interpreter in their dealing with public services and government departments, at doctor’s surgeries, when calling 999 and at job centres.

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Rose Ayling-Ellis, actor and Strictly Come Dancing winner, got behind the bill ahead of its second reading in parliament this week.
“I’m backing it because this is my language,” she told The Big Issue. “The fact that my country doesn’t see it that way is really sad and means we don’t get the respect we deserve and the language deserves.
“It is such a beautiful, rich language with its own structure, its own grammar, its own slang. If BSL becomes an official language, which we’ve been fighting for all these years, it will be so emotional for us. Because of the massive interest in BSL recently, a lot of people don’t realise how much of a fight the deaf community have had.”