Translation work for foreign crime suspects costs UK £450,000 a week

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/31/britain-spends-half-million-week-language-experts-help-criminals/

31 August 2020

Translation work for foreign crime suspects costs UK £450,000 a week

Government officials have spent £450,000 a week on language experts to provide translation services to foreign-speaking criminals and people caught up in the UK’s legal system.

Ministry of Justice officials spent £23.4 million between April 2019 and March 2020 for a total of 143 different dialects, including £20,000 on Oromo and £1,000 on Bravanese. Most of the money is spent providing expert assistance to foreign-speaking crime suspects, who need legal papers translated and then require an interpreter for their trial proceedings.

This year’s bill for translating legal cases increased eight per cent on the figure of £21.6 million for the previous 12 months between April 2018 and March 2019.

Much of the spending was on Polish, Lithuanian and Romanian speakers. There were also big spends on Bengali, Punjabi and Urdu speakers.

The figures were released in response to a Freedom of Information request. It is not clear if the number of crime suspects requiring the translation service has increased, or the cost of the services has increased. […]

The services provided include face to face interpreting, telephone interpreting and written translation and transcription. […]

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/31/britain-spends-half-million-week-language-experts-help-criminals/

"an interpreter could not be found"

https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/18667660.sentencing-men-involved-million-pound-cumbrian-cannabis-factory-postponed/

21^st August

Sentencing of men involved in "million pound" Cumbrian cannabis factory postponed

The sentencing of two men involved in the operation of a “million pound” west Cumbria cannabis factory has been postponed - because an interpreter could not be found to assist one of the men in court.

[…]

Both men, who are Albanian nationals, were due to be sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday but the case was adjourned as no interpreter had been provided for Braculla, who speaks little English, despite a request being lodged with an agency.

“I will be making specific enquiries of the agency to ascertain why it has not been possible to provide an Albanian interpreter,” said Judge Nicholas Barker. “It seems to me to be wholly unsatisfactory that one is not here which has led to a delay to this matter.”

The hearing has been adjourned until September 7, with Leka and Braculla remaining in custody until that date.