Diolch, Llywydd, for the opportunity to open this debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee. The petition we are discussing today relates to British Sign Language, and the ability of deaf children and their families to learn and use BSL in their everyday lives. As we all know, communication is a vital aspect of life. However, for some it can pose significant challenges on a daily basis.

This petition, which collected 1,162 signatures, was submitted by Deffo!, a forum for deaf young people based in Swansea. I welcome Deffo! and other observers to the public gallery, and I would also like to inform Members that an interpreter is signing proceedings in BSL in the gallery. A BSL version of the committee’s report is also available online, and a BSL video of this debate will also be made available later today on Senedd.tv.

I would also like to thank the petitioners on behalf of the committee—and, I am sure, all Members of this Assembly—for their tenacity and commitment to fighting for improvements to the education and support available to deaf and hard-of-hearing young people in Wales. In particular, the committee thanks Cathie and Helen Robins-Talbot from Deffo! for the information they have provided throughout the process, as well as to Luke and Zoe who gave deeply compelling oral evidence to the Petitions Committee during our consideration of the petition.

The petition calls on the Welsh Government to improve access to education and services in British Sign Language in order to improve the quality of life for deaf children and their families, and to deaf people of all ages. There are around 2,600 deaf children in Wales and over 3,000 pupils whose major special educational need is hearing impairment. BSL is a distinct language that is not dependent upon, or strongly related to, spoken English. The British Deaf Association state that there are approximately 7,200 BSL users in Wales, 4,000 of whom are deaf.  The Welsh Government recognised BSL as a language in its own right in 2004.