Executive summary
- The 999 BSL Emergency Video Relay Service continues to perform 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. 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 second year of operation, the 999 BSL service received approximately 23,000 calls (an average of 63 calls per day), a 24% increase on the first year. Despite this large volume increase and ongoing challenges that SLi faced, the most typical* caller waiting time was just 3 seconds.
- Through articles published in the press and shared on social media channels, we are thrilled that to date, at least seven lives have been saved through use of the 999 BSL service. We believe that the actual number of lives saved is much greater, based upon unofficial anecdotal evidence.
Please view the detailed report here: 999 BSL Annual Report 2023–2024