§ Lord Ashley of Stokeasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will seek to increase the number of trained and accredited sign language interpreters for profoundly deaf people. [HL765]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)With financial help from the Government, some 40 extra people will qualify as sign language interpreters and another 10 will be recruited as trainee interpreters over the next two to three years. In addition, we are putting accreditation arrangements for interpreters on a sound basis by funding the Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People to train 20 assessors, 10 internal verifiers and 10 external verifiers.