How many parliamentary debates and committee meetings have been signed to date.

Where there is an item of plenary business or a committee agenda item directly relating to deaf issues, British Sign Language signing facilities are provided. This has occurred once for chamber business: 16 February 2000 for a Members' Business debate (S1M-529, Dr Winnie Ewing) on sign language. In that instance, two signers were located in the public gallery and one was positioned on the floor of the chamber to interpret for deaf members of the public attending the debate.Committee meetings have employed deaf-signers on two occasions. When the Equal Opportunities Committee discussed, on 25 April 2000, a petition by Platform Adult Learning Centre calling for the Scottish Parliament to provide translation services for meetings of the Parliament and committee meetings for the deaf, deafblind people and for people with hearing difficulties, interpreters were contracted to interpret for those witnesses attending and to assist deaf members of the public observing. The Education, Culture and Sport Committee provided a signer for its meeting of 14 June 2000 when, in the course of a special educational needs inquiry, a deaf pupil from Donaldson's College in Edinburgh gave evidence to the committee.When signers have been requested for committee meetings, they have signed for an entire meeting and not just the item relating to why signers had specifically been requested. This has allowed deaf members of the public attending for that agenda item to follow the whole meeting.There have been no instances to date of a deaf person contacting the Parliament in advance or turning up on the day, asking to attend a plenary or committee meeting and expecting interpreting facilities.