Sign Language Bill Committee Stage Consideration Update

This is a written transcript of a video providing an update on the progress on the Committee Stage of the Sign Language Bill.

The information in the video is accurate as of Friday 17 October 2025.

Sign Language Bill - Committee for Communities

As part of the rules of the Assembly, legislation must pass through a Committee so that it can make sure any new law will do what it is supposed to do, and a Committee can suggest amendments where required to make sure this is the case.

This is the extra layer of scrutiny in place to make sure it delivers for the people who voted for MLAs to represent them.

To do this, the Committee seeks the views of experts on the issues and importantly ‘experts by experience’, the very people whose lives will be changed for the better as a result of the new law.

This meticulous Committee scrutiny informs all 90 MLAs and supports them to take part in the discussions supporting the next stages of the Bill’s passage through the Assembly.

As part of the Committee for Communities scrutiny of the Sign Language Bill we have considered signed, written and in-person evidence from a range of individuals and organisations. The Committee would like to thank everyone who took the time to give their views on the Bill.

We will use this evidence as we move into Committee deliberations. This will entail Committee members looking at the Bill, clause-by-clause, to reflect on the evidence we have received and suggest where improvements could be made, including proposing amendments which will then be decided on by the whole Assembly.

The Committee will carry out these deliberations at its upcoming meetings and to stay up to date you will find signed content on the Committee webpage and niassembly.tv.