Vikki Slade
MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“As the school summer holidays start, most children will be excited about six weeks of lazy days and endless play, but for young carers summer can be more like groundhog day, as children as young as five have to support their family.”
“In Manchester, London and now Wales, side road zebra crossings without Belisha beacons are allowed, yet in the rest of England they are not currently available. The Secretary of State mentioned the new cycling and walking strategy.”
“I wish to present a petition on behalf of residents in Wimborne about road safety in the Walford Mill area. This location is on the route of three local schools, is close to a nursery, GP surgery and local shop and sits alongside elderly residents’ flats.”
“This would not only enhance safety but offer reassurance to families and the wider community, reducing the likelihood of accidents, encouraging more people to walk to school and improve traffic flow. While work is finally expected to take place to introduce pedestrian crossings elsewhere, this does not present a solution.”
“And the petitioners remain, etc.” Following is the full text of the petition: [The petition of residents of the constituency of Mid Dorset and North Poole, Declares that Wimborne Road is a bustling thoroughfare used by a mix of vehicles and a significant number of pedestrians each day; further declares that despite its heavy use, there is…”
“The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to support the installation of one pedestrian crossing and one pedestrian refuge near Knobcrook Bridge and the BP garage on Wimborne Road. And the petitioners remain, etc.] [P003224]”
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Every one of 603 lines we hold for Vikki Slade, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 5 of 13.
“After her husband Richard was diagnosed with dementia, she decided to try to care for him at home. Her job meant that she went away for a few days at a time, and she felt that the best option was to find a carer to stay in her home with Richard. My colleagues in Somerset may remember this story, as it was in the local paper. Louise’s experience led to her starting a campaign for Richard’s law, which I said that I would take up. The law has three simple pillars—so simple that I was shocked they were not already in place. Those three pillars are mandatory registration of all care workers; mandatory enhanced DBS checks, with all carers required to join the update service; and mandatory, nationally recognised training for care staff in first aid, medication compliance, manual handling, dementia awareness and safeguarding.”
“She said: “We had a carer a few years ago, who had been lone working with our daughter at night for over a year, with a current DBS check. We had a call from Child Protective Services—the carer had tried to smother her own child”. They later discovered that the reason why the carer’s other child lived with grandparents was because she had tried to smother the older child, and they had been removed from her care. The man from the child protection services said, “It probably should have been on her DBS,” but it was not. As a result, Sandra said, “What is the point? There is no reason for me to get a DBS check—it would not have protected my child.” I have also been contacted by Louise, from another part of Dorset, who approached me due to my dementia champion work.”
“DBS checks currently have to be undertaken by an employer, a registered organisation or an umbrella organisation. That increases costs, adds delays and makes it more complex for families using direct payments for the care of disabled children and for those starting the journey of caring for an elderly relative. Laura contacted me about the direct payments that she receives to fund the care of her son, noting that she cannot directly access DBS checks. She said that “my very vulnerable son, quadriplegic with cerebral palsy and profound multiple learning disabilities has a team of 15 carers none of whom have DBS checks.” She asks why the law does not allow parents to carry out DBS checks on carers, who are “working often alone in our home”. Another constituent, Sandra, is in a similar position.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. People have to pay extra to be part of the update system. Why would anyone pay extra to put themselves under additional scrutiny? Why is that not automatic? The other option, which has been suggested by some, is that the Government could consider a right to ask/right to know process for family members. That would ensure that the public could not have free and easy access to information that could be risky, but if they had a concern, there would be a route for them to find out. We were simply stonewalled every time that we tried to find out whether this teacher had been registered and whether those allegations had been made. Let me turn to another situation, which has come up on a number of occasions, relating to people who are caring for family members.”
“He said that when he worked abroad, background checks often came back within a few hours, and that the “current manual processes just feel so outdated and inefficient, especially when so many people—students and employees alike—need these certificates to do their jobs or continue their studies.””
“From two-year waits for shotgun licences to nine-month delays in responses to MPs’ letters to the Department for Work and Pensions—if the Minister is listening, I have been waiting since February for an answer to a simple request—and a Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency that does not bother to chase doctors’ letters at all, I have been shocked by the poor service experienced by my residents in times of need. Where an enhanced DBS check is needed for an employee to take up their position, it is so important that it is processed swiftly. In theory, such checks should be completed within a fortnight, but in Dorset, the police are advising that delays can be up to 100 days. Daniel from Wareham has explained that this problem is impacting his ability to move forward with professional opportunities.”
“However, it seems shocking that family carers who are already sacrificing so much are unable to access DBS checks for those who are coming into their homes, and that someone who is providing such personal care is not automatically required to have such checks and training. Provision of personal registration would allow those who are working directly for their employers—be they carers, cleaners, tutors, babysitters, drivers or personal trainers—to provide security for families, particularly families who are home educating their children, and to work across multiple employers with ease. Finally, over the past few months, we in this place have spoken on numerous occasions about improving the service provided by Government agencies.”
“Her betrayal destroyed my ability to believe in the carers who were supposed to support us. I reached a breaking point where I could no longer allow outside help, and as a direct result, I had to make the heartbreaking decision to place my husband in residential care. This was never what I wanted for him, and it has changed both of our lives immeasurably, for the worse. The weight of that decision, forced upon me by her selfishness, is something I carry every day.” Sadly, Richard Woollam died on Boxing day—Louise contacted me a few days later to tell me that I had not managed to have this debate while he was still with us.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. Today, the headline in the Bournemouth Echo is about another case involving a carer, who stole £125,000 from an elderly person. The case I am describing is not a one-off. Louise told me about a carer who was coming into her home and who she had trusted. The basic DBS check was all she had, but after the carer stole jewellery and cash from her home, it came to light that this woman had three previous convictions for theft and obtaining property by deception, including a suspended sentence for an almost identical offence. In her victim statement, Louise said: “I welcomed her into our home, believing she was there to help us through one of the hardest chapters of our lives. Instead, she exploited our vulnerability in the most callous way imaginable. The worst thing she stole was my trust.”
“We need: mandatory registration of anyone working with children or vulnerable adults; mandatory enhanced DBS checks and use of the update service; a central, individual-held clearance card; a public mechanism to report concerns; the ability for families directly employing people to access DBS checks themselves; faster processing times via a digital system; and a review of the definition of regulated activity. These failures are not administrative inconveniences; they are risks to life and safety, and they reduce productivity too. The people I have spoken about tonight have paid the price for a system that is too complex, too slow and too optional. We owe it to them, and to every family in this country, to build a DBS system worthy of the trust that people place in it.”
“My hon. Friend makes a great point, and it is exactly the situation that Tabitha from Wimborne told me about. She said: “I am desperate to work…this is a big problem for not only my life and finances but also for others who are surely out there…who are like me, waiting for more than three months… I have been a TA (teaching assistant) previously and all my prior DBSs came back within a month.” She said it is absolutely ridiculous. Dorset is not alone in this. Across the country, families, volunteers and employers face similar failures, with delays, loopholes and an opaque system that simply does not keep pace with modern care and employment. The Disclosure and Barring Service exists to make recruitment safer and to protect vulnerable people from those who may present a risk. Those are both worthy aims, but the system is not working.”
“Will people have to go through some of the umbrella agencies, which can charge a lot of money? Will there be a cost differential for those individuals?”
“There are 7.2 million checks done a year, and I am sure that means multiple checks for individuals. I used to foster, and I obviously had very enhanced DBS checks for my fostering, but I then had to get a separate DBS check to undertake my work as a school governor. Frankly, that seems crazy. As a foster carer, I was being checked in far more detail. We could reduce the burden on the DBS by having a system of single portable checks, because I do not think that 7.2 million people a year are having checks.”
“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing forward this debate and his Bill. Does he agree that it is not just about bridleways? Forestry England has recently introduced quite substantial fees for carriages, which are used by a lot of disabled people, to use their paths, and complex paperwork more akin to that for people organising events. Does he agree that we should call on Forestry England to review that for individual carriage drivers?”
“I recently visited the Dorset breastfeeding network at the Purbeck community centre, and it was fascinating to hear about the work that the team there are doing, but they told me that since covid, standard NHS antenatal classes have stopped and have never returned. As a result, women are not getting the information that they need in order to make informed choices, which is leading to various decisions about how they give birth and whether they breastfeed their babies. We know that the Pride in Place and Best Start in Life centres are going ahead, but they will not cover most of my area because they are covering only the deprived areas. How will we ensure that there is a universal offer for antenatal care for everyone?”
“I completely recognise that the extension of the frozen tax threshold will not be felt immediately. We are all here worrying about it, but most of our residents will not see the difference probably until the next general election. However, it is on us to resolve this issue once and for all. In the Minister’s opening speech, he talked about asking those with the broadest shoulders to pay more. Let me speak briefly about three groups of people—apprentices, graduates and pensioners—who do not have the broadest shoulders and instead feel completely targeted.”
“I will be honest and say that, not having been to university, I do not know the details of the different groups. My students are all very recent graduates, so they went in knowing that they would have enormous debt and recognising that they would be more than £50,000 in debt, with probably no prospect of ever paying it off. I do not think they went in realising that they would get such a bad deal when they were at university, with eight hours of contact time a week and PhD students doing their lectures, rather than actual lecturers, some of whom cannot even speak English and are here only for their visas. Students are having a really rough time, and this measure is just rubbing salt into the wound.”
“They have suggested that it is not quite accurate that the state pension alone will not be taxed—I am using my words very carefully—so can the Minister assure me and my constituents, like others, that from April, those with no income other than the state income and modest savings will pay no income tax, particularly because there appears to be nothing in the Bill about that? Finally, given that millions of people with tiny private pensions and, in particular, many pensioners will be dragged into tax, will the Minister consider the Lib Dem proposal for a pensioners’ “red phone” to ensure that they do not spend hours hanging on the telephone?”
“The older age group will have been pleased to hear that they are due to be exempted from the tax threshold if their only income is the state pension, but two constituents—Colin from Wareham, who is a regular correspondent, and John from Lytchett—have written to suggest that the Chancellor may have inadvertently misled Martin Lewis. I will not use their other accusation, as I will get into a lot of trouble. One said that most pensioners are expected to survive on a weekly state pension that is four times lower than the average wage, and that mandating that they be taxed will plunge many older people into desperation and poverty.”
“I always value the interventions of the hon. Member. As the aunt of a young GP, Bethan, who has more than £100,000-worth of debt, I think it is ridiculous that our young people are being saddled with this situation. I have constituents who have deliberately gone to study in Wales so that they are able to get that benefit. It is time for us to look collectively at analysing the cumulative impact of the issues faced by our young, aspirational adults, because we will see more of them deciding to go abroad, and we desperately need our home-grown talent to stay. Thirdly, I turn, as most Members have done, to pensioners.”
“Our lord lieutenant even has an inspiring artist in residence, the lovely Dave Roberts, who pens everything that the lord lieutenant does throughout all the towns. People often bemoan how our town centres have become identikit. As we move to online shopping, and as the high cost of trading makes it far more difficult, our towns and cities will become defined more by what we can do and experience than by what we can buy. That is why it is so important that councils continue to fund culture; it must not become something that only the wealthy can afford.”
“I celebrate both. The three towns of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, which are looking to bid together, offer a great story of togetherness. Christchurch has a history that dates back to AD 650, with its younger sibling Poole—with its fantastic links to Canada and fishing—receiving the first of its two charters in 1248. Poole also draws on its local culture with the Folk on the Quay festival, which is the smaller sibling of the annual Wimborne minster folk festival. The harbour is also the setting for the amazing Poole harbour festival, which I am excited to confirm is being headlined this year by the Kaiser Chiefs, and will also feature my favourite band, Scouting for Girls, as well as many home-grown talents, such as Chris Payn, the Wonky Donkeys and the Mother Ukers. Our incredible landscape also inspires visual arts.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for his passionate pitch for his area. I welcome the Government’s announcement of the competition for the town of culture 2028. The nature of a community is defined by three things: its landscape and architecture, its hospitality and retail sector, and—mostly—its culture. Dorset is the home of the Jurassic coast, but it is also home to some incredible culture: from the literature of Thomas Hardy and Enid Blyton to the Arts by the Sea festival in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and the Inside Out festival, which pops up in the smaller towns and villages—not to mention Purbeck film festival, which is the oldest rural film festival in the UK, so lovingly curated by volunteers. I agree with the hon. Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore), who talked about the future as well as the past.”
“Wimborne really is the place to be in 2026 and can show other places how culture can be inclusive, relevant and fun even on a small scale. I would love to welcome the Minister and other hon. Members to come to Wimborne during 2026; I can assure them they will receive a warm welcome and leave enriched by a flavour of Dorset in our food and our culture.”
“I know that Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole will submit their own very vibrant and energising application, which will deserve support, but I must mention smaller groups too. Besides the UK town of culture, Dorset has its own town of culture competition, and I am thrilled that this year Wimborne, the heart of my beautiful constituency, has been announced as the town of culture 2026, with its incredible Museum of East Dorset—complete with a mummified cat—a chained library in Wimborne minster, the Tivoli theatre, the Allendale Centre, the annual Queen Elizabeth’s school show, which this year is “Legally Blonde: The Musical”, the Walford Mill Gallery, the annual folk festival and the Kingston Lacy stately home, which features incredible art celebrating its LGBT owner, who had to hide away in Spain when it was not safe to be gay in this country.”
“It is absolutely crucial that we maintain that, so that grassroots groups can continue to meet in our draughty community centres to create the next generation of actors, musicians, authors and artists. They simply will not exist if we do not maintain funding for culture. I am really pleased that the Minister is to confirm that the town of culture competition will come with £60,000 of funding; when looking into the city of culture scheme, I found that it can be incredibly expensive to enter these competitions; if a city does not get through to the final, they end up then having to cut the very services that they were trying to develop through the competition. It is a great decision to make sure that shortlisted places get a bite of the cherry.”
“I thank the hon. and learned Gentleman for raising that. Speaking of towns with incredible historical ports, much of the training for the D-day landings took place from Poole harbour. We now have the incredible Lighthouse cultural venue in Poole, where residents have mapped the town’s history, its links to Canada and its future in an incredible community play, showing how the town grew up. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, which is based in Poole, could not open up to the National Theatre schools programme without public funding. It could not send musicians into hospices, run its annual schools concert, which this year is based on the elements, or visit Exeter and Portsmouth without that local funding.”
“Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a slight confusion? The Minister consistently referenced the importance of this review and how independent and important it was, but then has thrown out the central tenet of it, which was to introduce a court that has a judge and two magistrates. That would provide three heads rather than one, some local influence and some laypeople. Does my hon. Friend have any views as to why the Minister is so insistent on throwing out that central tenet, given how important she says the review is?”
“Wessex Internet, which was founded by the late James Gibson Fleming, has done some great work in Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Somerset, but the vouchers that are given out to areas that are not included are not available in Dorset. We have challenged that many times with the Ministry. Would the Minister mind seeing whether vouchers can be rolled out in every area that needs them?”
“President Trump is supposed to be working on a peace deal for Ukraine, but he has been so much more focused on invading Venezuela and making threats against Greenland. What assurance can the Secretary of State give to the House on the US’s continued commitment to getting a deal in Ukraine? What contingencies are in place to revisit the EU-led proposals should they be necessary?”
“They have flagged that the NHS has approved selective internal radiation therapy, but only for colorectal and liver cancers—not those whose primary cancer was in the pancreas and then spread to the liver. These families are keen for urgent trials to be undertaken to allow the treatment to be used, given the incredibly short life expectancy faced by patients. Will the Minister consider that? We have been waiting such a long time for this cancer strategy. We need the workforce plan and the road map for the NHS plan. Nine hundred and fifty people will be diagnosed with cancer today, and those people need hope.”
“Across the country, 45,000 additional people would be given a greater chance of not just surviving but having a life shared with those they love. Furthermore, once they get to hospital, patients are faced with out-of-date machinery and not enough specialist nurses. Macmillan Cancer Support says there is an acute shortage and calls for a cancer nurse fund to increase the numbers by 3,700. Will the future cancer strategy include such funding? I want to speak briefly about pancreatic cancer, which claimed the life of my cousin Colin, a super-fit former Welsh Commonwealth games cyclist who died in his 50s despite the best care available. Many other constituents have written to me about poor prognosis for this treatment.”
“This is not a criticism of our GPs, who are working in highly difficult situations. Indeed, when I shadowed Dr Wright from Walford Mill surgery in Wimborne, he had the sober task of sharing a diagnosis and undertaking a very personal test during his appointment, which he let me witness. If diagnosis doubled across the six least survivable cancers alone, an additional 7,500 lives a year would be saved. Each year in my constituency of Mid Dorset and North Poole, there are 540 diagnoses of cancer and 300 cancer deaths. Although 85% of them should be starting treatment within 62 days, the number is actually only 60%. What is the Minister doing to bridge that gap? If we met the target in my constituency, 70 additional people would be getting on with their lives.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Southport (Patrick Hurley) for that really moving account. We know that cancer affects us all. In my family it claimed my mum Lin; my sister-in-law Lisa and my stepmum Sally have both beaten it, and now my dad Ray is living with terminal cancer. One of my team is also undergoing treatment for cancer, so we know that it is prevalent among all our lives. All of them were fit, healthy people who did everything right, as are so many others each year who get the horrible news or—worse—turn up in A&E after becoming suddenly unwell. According to a Cancer Research study, many of those patients had visited their GP but had not been referred for tests, either because they did not meet the thresholds or because they had been missed altogether.”
“T5. My constituents welcome the £150 saving on energy bills, particularly as it is now snowing, but Andrew from Arrow Energy Solutions is worried. Some 35% of his heat pump and solar installations were through the energy company obligation. Although he says it needed reform, he is worried about what comes next. I welcome the forthcoming warm homes plan, but what can the Secretary of State say to Andrew and to H2ecO, another wonderful company, about the risk to jobs in that sector as we transition?”
“I am fascinated and happy to hear what is being proposed. Will it be possible for members of the public to check an online database for that permit? When somebody picks something up from a house and shows their permit, people can feel quite vulnerable. Being able to go online and check the permit against the local authority or central database would give people a lot more confidence.”
“I am disappointed to hear that the Minister is not looking at a common certificate of sponsorship. Has he made a decision, with his colleagues, on whether care workers will be considered in the same group as NHS workers in relation to the faster route? Otherwise, we are going to end up with a massive hole in our services, with social care yet again being the Cinderella service to the NHS.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker—what a lovely birthday present. Last week I met my constituent Kevin, the programme lead for TESTBED Dorset. He told me that although life sciences is one of the key sectors in the modern industrial strategy, none of the seven projects is in the south-west, and there is not a single reference to Dorset. The living science park will create a vast area for academic research based in our landscapes, supported by landowners, universities from Bournemouth, Bristol and Southampton, the National Trust and Natural England, focused on a “one health” approach. Will the Secretary of State meet me and those lead organisations to hear more about the programme and consider it for the future?”
“I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I welcome the Government’s announcement of a cap on social care placements, but some special schools are making unreasonable charges. One school in my area that is offering places to neurodiverse children who are struggling in mainstream education but are otherwise without disabilities charges more than £100,000 a year in fees plus transport, while state-maintained alternatives are doing it for £25,000 for the same cohort. Will the Minister commit herself to working with the Department for Education to introduce a cap on charges and profits for specialist schools now? Councils will have collapsed by 2028 and taxpayers will lose out, so this really needs to be addressed before then.”
“Or think of a teenage trans girl, who is fully accepted by her friends, suddenly experiencing the growth of facial hair and a dropping voice, and waiting years for an appointment. Imagine how they feel sick, showering a body that physically repulses them, binding to ensure they pass among their friends, and hiding from any situation where they are exposed. Children whose puberty is advancing too quickly can access these drugs, but trans children cannot. When the drugs were banned last year and the Government announced that there would be a trial, I thought that those who genuinely wanted fair and safe healthcare for trans children would have welcomed it. Instead, they described those children as guinea pigs. The trial must go ahead and needs to be expanded.”
“Although in a small number of high-profile cases, an individual has transitioned back to the gender assigned at birth, the vast majority do not. An Australian study found that 5% ended up identifying with their sex assigned at birth, but only 1% of those did so after receiving puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy. The others did so during their initial assessment at the clinic. That is significantly lower than the regret rate for breast implants, tattoos or any other change to someone’s body. Puberty blockers are not permanent; they are to delay puberty and pause development. Imagine a young transgender child who starts to live as a boy as they end the primary phase of their education—taking part in boys’ sports and changing their name on documentation—then having to contend with breast growth and menstruation at school.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) for such a passionate, incredible speech. Although she focused on adults, I would like to talk more about young people. I am not sure whether the recent outrage about the puberty blockers trial is a result of misunderstanding, or whether those who do not accept that trans people have a right to affirmative care are simply using it as another opportunity to cause distress and harm to young people who are already marginalised and deeply frightened about their future. I am going to be generous and say it is the former, and I will help by providing some clarity. Puberty blockers have been used since the 1980s.”
“I ask the Minister to look carefully at this issue to ensure that trans children get the services they need and trans adults continue to receive them.”
“We know it is dangerous for people to wait long periods. Coroners repeatedly refer to long waiting lists in the context of trans people’s deaths. In my last few seconds, I want to address shared care. A constituent of mine, a trans man who transitioned at about 18, has had NHS care in place for many years. He has now been told by his GP that they will not offer him shared care. He has been told that the practice has had a letter from the gender identity clinic saying that the practice does not have the systems, capacity or expertise in place to provide the level of monitoring and care. That is simply unacceptable. This is NHS care. My constituent has NHS prescriptions. Now his own GP says that they will not support him, despite being required to do so.”
“I thank my neighbour for his intervention. Of course they are people; they are our friends, family and neighbours. Puberty blockers are of no use once someone reaches 16 or 17, as by that time the damage is done. The hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson) may pull a strange face at me but, frankly, for those children the damage is often done. They have often attempted suicide multiple times and their lives have been damaged. All they want is access to the support, the hormones and the treatment that they should be entitled to. When they reach 17 years and nine months, however, they are transferred to adult services. In some cases, they have been waiting since they were 12 or 13, only to be told that the south-west of England is currently dealing with referrals from 2017. That is simply not acceptable.”
“When this Government came into office in July 2024, magistrates were dealing with cases that had a potential sentence of up to six months, but that has now gone up to 12 months and by next year it could be two years. There is already a backlog of 361,000 cases in the magistrates courts. In my meeting with the Law Society today, representatives expressed deep concerns about whether magistrates would be able to take on longer, more emotionally draining cases, and that some magistrates may decide that they are not comfortable about depriving people of their liberty for that long. What assessment has been done of the ability of magistrates to cope emotionally, and of the magistrates courts to cope with those increases?”
“More than 34,000 residents of Dorset are over the age of 80 and therefore excluded from the RSV vaccine. They have been told that it is too dangerous for them to take, but they are now extremely worried because cases are going up. Will the Secretary of State sit back round with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and review the decision to exclude them, so that residents such as Joan in Wimborne, who has to care for her even older and more disabled husband, can get reassurance this winter that she can protect herself and him?”
“I do not want to labour the point, but whether or not UK arms are being used by the UAE in Sudan is not relevant. It would be horrendous if they were, but the Minister has repeatedly said that they are not being used. Nevertheless, everyone seems to accept that UAE arms are being used, so I repeat the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord): what meetings has the Minister had with the UAE, since the last debate, to discuss whether it is arming the people of Sudan?”
“Earlier this year, I attended an amazing event at the Dorset Museum called “In My Shoes” for care-experienced young people, who explained the importance of making care experience a protected characteristic, as we have done in many councils, including mine in Mid Dorset and North Poole. Will the Minister take the same step with Cabinet colleagues, and consider making care experience a protected characteristic?”
“I have been assisting several constituents who are deaf and need the support of British Sign Language interpreters and face-to-face appointments. There are only five BSL interpreters available to cover the whole of Dorset, and as a result people are waiting extremely long periods not only to get appointments but to get access to help them get to work. Can the Minister explain what is being done to provide more such services?”