1 November 2014
Revealed:
Police spend £2m on interpreters to break language barrier
Police
across Shropshire and Mid Wales have spent more than £2.5 million on foreign
language interpreters over the past five years, according to new figures.
The
money has been spent helping prisoners in custody and providing support for
victims, and translations have been made for people speaking Polish, Romanian
and Dutch.
But
the amount spent by West Mercia Police, which covers Shropshire, has been
declining year on year. Officials have put the shrinking figures down to a
"downward trend" of overall crime.
The
figures for West Mercia Police and Dyfed-Powys Police have been revealed
through a Freedom in information request, which revealed the two forces had
racked up a combined total of £2,557,475.58. West Mercia Police spent
£2,037,726.56 since 2008, while officers in Powys spent £519,749.02.
Money
spent in West Mercia has been declining since 2008/9, when £527,061.62 was
spent. The highest spend for Dyfed-Powys was in 2009/10 at £136,749.34, while
costs rose again in 2013/14 to £100,855.19.
Since
April 2014, the top six language translation that West Mercia Police has paid
for are Polish, Romanian, Lithuanian, Sylheti, Russian and Dutch.
Chloe
Drinkwater, spokeswoman for West Mercia Police, said: "Crime is on a
downward trend and over the past few years, the number of people arrested has
continued to fall. A combination of falling crime and changes to arrest
procedures attributes to the decline in amount spent on translation services.
"The
promoted use of voluntary interviews has also impacted on arrest numbers which
have continued to fall, while there has been a significant up surge in the
amount of interviews carried out voluntarily. This downward trend on arrest
numbers, and the falling crime rate is reflected in the reducing cost of
translation services.
"If
an officer finds that they are unable to communicate effectively with a person
whether they be a witness, under arrest or having attended voluntarily then
they will call on the services of a translator.
"This
can either be over the telephone using the services of 'Languageline', or in
person using the services of 'NRPSI'."
In
2011, the Ministry of Justice outsourced interpretation work to private firm
Applied Language Solutions (ALS) in a bid to save £18 million a year.
ALS
was sold to Capita, an outsourcing and recruitment company, before the contract
began, and is now run as Capita Translation and Interpreting.
West
Mercia Police has uses the services of Languageline or NRPSI.
But
those behind The Professional Interpreters for Justice campaign are calling for
change.
One
of the campaign’s three aims is to bring back the direct employment of
freelance interpreters by the courts and police services.
The
Race Relations Act states all parts of the community should have access to
services. The Human Rights Act only requires translation if someone is arrested
or charged with a criminal offence.
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