To ask the Minister for Communities to detail when the guidance contained in the Sign Language Act (Northern Ireland) 2026 will be provided to all prescribed organisations.

The Sign Language Act (Northern Ireland) 2026 (The Act) requires that prescribed organisations must be consulted when the guidance referred to in this question is being devised or reviewed. As such, the regulations prescribing such organisations must be in place before such as consultation can take place.

Preliminary work on those regulations has begun. A formal consultation with those organisations which are proposed to be prescribed in those regulations will begin in the coming weeks. The Act requires that the regulations listing prescribed organisations are made under the affirmative resolution process.

It is only after such bodies are listed as prescribed organisations, that a formal consultation on the guidance, in accordance with section 5(3)(a) of the Act, can be undertaken.

Given the numbers of steps involved in the process, it is not possible at this point to provide a definitive timescale for the publication of the guidance referred to in the question.