Question reference: S6W-01322
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 8 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 26 July 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to develop a long-term strategy to meet any future need in Scotland for spoken language interpreting.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving and embedding inclusive communication within Government and across public bodies, this is a focus of one of our Equality Outcomes for the 2021-25 reporting period, as well as being a 2020 PfG commitment. The Scottish Government intends all local and national services to be accessible to all citizens in Scotland, regardless of circumstances of an individual service user.
We expect local and national bodies to consider on an ongoing basis the needs of people who do not speak or access English as their first language. In the immediate term, we are currently developing a human rights and equalities mainstreaming strategy which will explore key themes such as effective communications and we expect that spoken language interpreting will form a significant part of these considerations.