PQ: 3 December 2024

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16684.h

NHS: Interpreters and Translation Services

Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 3 December 2024.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the average additional time taken during the appointments for (a) translation and (b) interpretation.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of letters posted by the NHS were in each language in each of the last five years; and what the cost of translation was for those letters.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which interpreting agencies are contracted to provide services to the NHS; and what the cost to the public purse of those contracts is.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many test results have been translated into languages other than English for each of the last five years.

Karin Smyth Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not hold the requested information centrally. Integrated care boards are responsible for arranging National Health Service healthcare services to meet the needs of their respective populations, which includes translation services.

The Department has no plans to estimate the average additional time taken during appointments for translation and interpretation.

The Department also has no plans to collect information on the proportion and cost of letters posted by the NHS in each language over the last five years, for which interpreting agencies are contracted to provide services to the NHS, the cost of such contracts, or how many test results have been translated into languages other than English for each of the last five years.

 

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-15.14506.h

NHS: Translation Services

Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 3 December 2024.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of full-time translation and interpretation staff working in the NHS; what externally-provided translation and interpretation services are available in the NHS; and if he will publish (a) a list of the providers and (b) the cost to the public purse for those services.

Karin Smyth Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is unable to provide a response about the number of full-time translation and interpretation staff working in the National Health Service, because the data is not held centrally. Information on the externally provided translation and interpretation services used by the NHS, as well as the list of providers they used, can be found in the following provider frameworks:

¾ the Crown Commercial Service, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6141;

¾ the ESPO Language Services, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.espo.org/language-services-402-24.html;

¾ the NHS London Procurement Partnership Language Services Framework, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.lpp.nhs.uk/categories/estates-facilities-corporate-services/language-services-framework/; and

¾ the NHS Shared Business Services Interpretation and Translation Services Framework, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.sbs.nhs.uk/services/framework-agreements/interpretation-and-translation-services/.

Information on the amount spent under each of these frameworks is not held centrally.

 

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-21.15618.h

General Practitioners: Translation Services

Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 3 December 2024.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2024 to Question 14197 on General Practitioners: Translation Services, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the cost of translation and interpretation services incurred by GPs.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November to Question 14376 on Health Services: Translation Services, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the number of (a) GP and (b) outpatient appointments conducted in a language other than English and British Sign Language.

Karin Smyth Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has not made, and has no plans to make, an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the cost of translation and interpretation services incurred by general practices (GPs).

The Department has also not made, and has no plans to make, an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the number of GP and outpatient appointments conducted in a language other than English and British Sign Language.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024-11-27.16688.h

NHS: Translation Services

Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 3 December 2024.

Rupert Lowe Reform UK, Great Yarmouth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 15631 on NHS: Translation services, which languages e-RS letters sent in 2024-25 were translated into.

Karin Smyth Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Please see the list below which outlines the languages which e-Referral Service letters sent in 2024/25 were translated into:

- Arabic; - Bengali; - Gujarati; - Kurdish; - Persian; - Polish; - Punjabi; - Somali; - Turkish; - Urdu; - Albanian; - Chinese; - French; - Greek; - Hindi; - Hungarian; - Italian; - Lithuanian; - Portuguese; - Romanian; - Russian; - Slovak; - Spanish; - Tamil; and - Wolof.