Disability Rights Task force

23 May 2022

Dear

ATISN 16289 - Disability Rights Task force which relates to British Sign Language

Thank you for your request which I received on 28 April 2022.  In your email, you requested the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:

1. How many Deaf BSL users are a member of the Welsh Government's Disability Rights Taskforce?
2. How many other members of the Disability Rights Taskforce are able to use BSL?
3. How many disabled members and able bodies members of the Disability Taskforce?
4. Minutes or documents from the Disability Rights Task force which relates to BSL.
5. Emails, minutes and documents relating to discussing a BSL Audit.  I know this has not been finalised, but I want communication from the start of the proposal as to where you currently are at.

Our response

Question 1 and 2

The Welsh Government does not hold information of this description. However, it is our policy to ensure that all Disability Rights Taskforce members can attend and effectively communicate in the meetings. To achieve this, officials contacted all members of the Disability Rights Taskforce requesting access and communication requirements for all meetings. As a result of this we provide BSL support in all Disability Rights Taskforce meetings.

Question 3

The Welsh Government does not hold information of this description. We do not hold information or records on the Disability Rights Taskforce member’s impairments, health conditions or use of British Sign Language.

Question 4

The Welsh Government does not hold information of this description. I can confirm that two Disability Rights Taskforce meetings have taken place, however there is no reference or comments of BSL audit recorded on the meeting notes.

Question 5

We have estimated that it will cost more than the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 to answer your request.  The appropriate limit specified for central government is £600. This represents the estimated cost of it taking over 24 hours of time to determine whether we hold the information and to thereafter locate, retrieve and extract it. 

We have carried out a preliminary search for the information you requested and found over 1000 documents that contained a reference to BSL audit. Not all of these documents would necessarily contain information pertinent to your request and so each would need to be interrogated. A 10% sample search of the information was carried out which took 6.30 hours to complete. On that basis, I estimate it would take over 65 hours to extract the relevant information from the total of the documents found on the preliminary search.  Consequently, I have decided not to provide you with the information from this request. 

British Sign Language covers a broad range of Welsh Government policy work. You may wish to refine your request by narrowing the scope by being more specific about what information you particularly wish to obtain. This may include any dates or periods of time relevant to the information required. If you do refine your request in this way, this will be treated as a new request.

Next steps

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this response.  Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at:

Information Rights Unit, 
Welsh Government, 
Cathays Park, 
Cardiff, 
CF10 3NQ 

or Email: Freedom.ofinformation@gov.wales

Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.   

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

Information Commissioner’s Office, 
Wycliffe House, 
Water Lane, 
Wilmslow, 
Cheshire, 
SK9 5AF.

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

Yours sincerely