Executive summary
- The 999 BSL Emergency Video Relay Service, first introduced on 17 June 2022, is performing effectively and to a high-quality standard, providing critical access to the emergency services for Deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users across the U.K. for the first time in history. Sign Language Interactions (SLi) complies with the Ofcom Approval Criteria for Emergency Video Relay Service Providers on an ongoing basis, as detailed later in this report.
- In the first year, the service has received over 17,000 calls (an average of 47 calls per day) and despite some significant challenges that SLi have faced (which are detailed in the next section), the most typical* caller waiting time was just 4 seconds.
- Through articles published in the press and shared on social media channels over the last year, we are thrilled to have learned (and confirmed) that to date, at least five lives were saved through use of the 999 BSL service. We expect that the actual number of lives saved could be much higher and we have recently launched a fresh campaign asking the public to share their stories with us about how 999 BSL has saved their/other people’s lives, with the objective of spreading awareness about this important service.
Please view the detailed report here: 999 BSL Annual Report 2022–2023