Diolch to Mark for bringing this Member Bill before us today. I wish you well with this development. I wanted to make a couple of points in support of the Bill and the possible benefits of its introduction.

Recently, I attended a meeting with Welsh Women’s Aid and we discussed the barriers that stop women who are at risk of or are experiencing domestic violence from seeking help. One of those aspects was the lack of BSL provision. They said, in response to the ESJ committee inquiry, that approximately 22 deaf women are at risk of abuse every day. However, they continue to face significant barriers when accessing support. There is often a lack of material available in BSL and there is often difficulty finding translation for terms related to violence and abuse.

These communication barriers cause additional obstacles for survivors wanting to access help and support, making it more difficult for them to leave perpetrators and access safety. There must be fully resourced translators for all services to ensure that they are available immediately and a survivor is not left waiting due to the lack of translation provision in their chosen language. Surely, if this Bill does nothing else, this is an important reason for its introduction, and I hope Mark and the Cabinet Secretary agree with me on that.

Another point I wanted to raise was in relation to the future generations Act. We need this Bill to promote and facilitate BSL in Wales, ensuring a link between the BSL Bill and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, so that BSL plans and reporting requirements are fed into the reporting cycle to reduce the burden on public bodies and ensure alignment. What gets measured gets done, so putting a duty on reporting is so important in creating a culture where the use of BSL is embedded.

And finally, providing BSL interpreters as we have here today should be a standard way of working in this Senedd. Parity between Welsh and English is enshrined in law, so why not add a third Welsh language, BSL? Diolch yn fawr.