Written Question·Department of Health and Social Care·UIN 83912

Hearing Impairment: Mental Capacity

Tabled: 21 October 2025
Answered: 21 November 2025

Question

Lee Anderson

Reform UKAshfield

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that deaf people are not wrongly identified as lacking mental capacity due to communication barriers.

Answer

Stephen Kinnock
The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 already provides a legislative basis for providing interpreters, including British Sign Language interpreters, for people with specific communication needs. One of the foundational principles of the MCA is that individua...

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