 Ffnansiol Memorandum. Introduction. This document relates to the British Sign Language Scotland Bill, the Bill. It has been prepared by the non-government bills unit on behalf of Mark Griffin MSP, the member introducing the bill, to satisfy rule 9.3.2 of the Parliament's Standing Orders. It does not form part of the Bill and has not been endorsed by the Parliament. The purpose of this Ffnansiol Memorandum is to set out the best estimates of the administrative and other costs to which the provision of the Bill will give rise and an indication of uncertainty in these estimates. The Bill aims to promote British Sign Language, BSL, and introduces a number of measures to underpin this aim. Under the Bill, BSL plans will be published by the Scottish Ministers, National Plans and specified public authorities, authority plans. These plans are to be reviewed and updated at regular intervals and reported on via performance review reports prepared by the Scottish Ministers. This memorandum is concerned with the cost of implementing the Bill, i.e. with the production and publication of national plans, authority plans and performance reviews, and does not attempt to quantify the potential additional costs that may arise if bodies were prompted perhaps by the requirement to publish authority plans to expand on the provision of translation services, staff training and so on. It is hoped the obligations under the Bill to prepare authority plans and be held to account for progress with their implementation will, in practice, lead public authorities to increase the use they make of BSL and the extent to which they are in the position to respond to demand for services in BSL. However, figures cannot be put on any additional costs arising in this way because it is not possible to estimate how much additional activity will be generated and what the nature of that activity will be. Listed public authorities will be required under the Bill to produce and publish authority plans and are likely to incur costs as a result. Any costs beyond the cost of complying with the requirements of the Bill will be a matter for public authorities who must determine what activity beyond the production of plans they undertake in relation to BSL. Many of the bodies specified in Schedule 2 have been involved in BSL planning for some time and may therefore incur only very minor additional expenditure as a result of the Bill. For these reasons, it is difficult to estimate a global figure for what new expenditure will result from the legislation. Consultation on the Member's proposal for the Bill took place between 27 July and 7 November 2012. A summary of the consultation responses is available on the Scottish Parliament's website. A number of those responding to the consultation remarked that the increase in the demand for BSL interpreters which may occur as a result of the legislation could increase costs for those using contracted rather than in-house services. If this were to occur, there could be an impact on the cost of translating consultation material and the completed plans should authorities decide to publish in this way. There is no requirement within the Bill for consultation exercises and plans to be produced in BSL format however, and the cost estimates in this memorandum do not therefore include the cost of publication in multiple formats.