PQ: 30 March 2026

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2026-03-23.122922.h

Legal Aid Scheme: Translation Services

Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 30 March 2026.

Mark Sewards Labour, Leeds South West and Morley

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Legal Aid Agency in ensuring solicitors use qualified and security‑vetted interpreters in legally‑aided family proceedings.

Sarah Sackman The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice

Interpreters play a crucial role in family court proceedings, ensuring that individuals who do not speak English or have hearing impairments can fully participate and understand the legal process.

For most family court proceedings, His Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Services is responsible for securing interpreters for use during hearings. Neither legal aid providers nor the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) are involved in this process.

A legal aid solicitor may instruct an interpreter for use outside of hearings. All providers who undertake legal aid work are independent providers of legal aid services and are subject to oversight and regulation by relevant professional bodies rather than the LAA. When instructing interpreters in legal aid cases, legal aid providers must ensure that they adhere to the requirements set out under paragraphs 2.48-2.51 of the 2024 Standard Civil Contract: Specification. This includes provisions regarding the level of qualification that the interpreter must hold and the evidence which must be obtained and retained on file regarding this and the circumstances in which it is permissible to instruct a non-qualified interpreter.

The LAA undertakes a range of audit and assurance activity to ensure legal aid providers are complying with their contractual obligations. Clause 24 of the 2024 Standard Civil Contract: Standard Terms empowers the LAA to apply a sanction where breaches of contract are identified.

These contractual provisions act as an effective safeguard to ensure the most appropriate interpreter is used having regard to the specific circumstances of the case.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/call-for-training-and-appraisals-to-improve-treatment-of-defendants/5126312.article

27 March 2026 by Bianca Castro

Study calls for training and appraisals to improve treatment of defendants

[…] Around a quarter of defendants in the cases observed did not speak English as a first language, with some 10% of the hearings observed involving a defendant who required an interpreter ‘in the courtwatcher’s judgment’. An interpreter was provided in less than half of those cases, the report added. ‘Family members tried to fulfil the role of interpreter for defendants who needed one. This goes against CPS guidance. Some courtwatchers condoned this approach as a pragmatic solution, but others felt it was not appropriate.’ [...]

PQ: 25 March 2026

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2026-03-17.121516.h

Courts: Translation Services

Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 25 March 2026.

Nick Timothy Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court interpreters have been requested for translation services in each year since 2020, broken down by the language requested.

Jake Richards Assistant Whip, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice

The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly data on the volume of completed language interpreter and translation services requests, split by requestor type, as part of the Criminal court statistics release. However, published data is not broken down by language.

Criminal Court Statistics: Criminal court statistics - GOV.UK

The Ministry of Justice has provided a table in the attachment showing the number of completed service requests both through contracts (with thebigword Group Ltd and Clarion UK Ltd) and off-contract, for each year from 2020 to 2024, split by language. The table is a breakdown of the published figures, split by language.

Given the request for ‘court interpreters’, we have filtered the data to include criminal courts and civil & family courts. We have not included data for Tribunals or other types of Ministry of Justice interpreter usage.

Data has not been provided for 2025 as we do not yet have a complete dataset for this year.

Data Table (xlsx, 25.0KB)

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2025

Published 25 March 2026

Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2025

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2025

PQ: 23 March 2026

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2026-03-23a.25.0#g28.4

Court and Tribunal Transcripts — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair]

– in Westminster Hall at 5:46 pm on 23 March 2026.

James Naish Labour, Rushcliffe

Clearly, we are talking about having access to accurate court transcripts. I have been contacted by a couple of constituents who work as registered public service interpreters. They feel that the current system is very patchy and that the quality of interpretation services is not good enough. Indeed, someone can still act as an interpreter in the system without professional or vocational training. Does the hon. Member agree that we must raise standards and ensure that there is a strong supply of level 6 qualified interpreters to support people in getting access to the transcripts we are discussing?

PQ: 17 March 2026

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2026-03-17b.746.4#g748.3

 

Topical Questions

Justice – in the House of Commons at on 17 March 2026.

Will Forster Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Immigration and Asylum)

The Justice Secretary will no doubt be aware of the tragic case of Sara Sharif from my Constituency. Her father, who went on to murder her, was given custody of Sara by the family court, after her Polish mother was unable to give evidence because she did not have an interpreter and could not follow proceedings. Please will the Justice Secretary agree to implement the Sara Sharif safeguarding report in full, and ensure that everyone can take part fully in family court proceedings, to protect the vulnerable going forward?

Sarah Sackman The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice

I thank the hon. Member for his question and his tireless advocacy, which is a way of honouring Sara, who was brutally murdered at the hands of the very people who should have been protecting her. Of course, it is essential for justice that all court users understand what is happening in hearings. We believe that Sara Sharif’s birth mother was entitled to an interpreter, but she did not request one. However, we need to look into what should have been done to guarantee that she had an interpreter. We make over 200,000 interpreter bookings every year to ensure that people can understand proceedings, but I look forward to working with him to see what more we can do to implement that review.

https://www.ein.org.uk/news/unhcr-publishes-audit-home-office-asylum-interviews-calls-improvements

9 March 2026

UNHCR publishes audit of Home Office asylum interviews, calls for improvements

he United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has today published a major new report examining the quality and effectiveness of asylum interviews conducted by the Home Office.

The 92-page report, Asylum Interviews in the UK: Audit Findings and Recommendations, can be downloaded here. It reviews current practices, identifies areas for improvement, and makes ten key recommendations aimed at strengthening the asylum decision-making process. [...]

Read more here: https://www.ein.org.uk/news/unhcr-publishes-audit-home-office-asylum-interviews-calls-improvements

https://www.unhcr.org/uk/sites/uk/files/2026-03/asylum_interviews_in_the_uk_-_unhcr_audit_findings_and_recommendations.pdf

Failed asylum seeker’s sex assault trial abandoned after no interpreter found

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/25842623.asylum-seekers-sex-assault-trial-abandoned-due-interpreter/

10 February 2026

Failed asylum seeker’s sex assault trial abandoned after no interpreter found

The trial of a failed Somalian asylum seeker for alleged sex offences has been abandoned after an interpreter could not be found.

A jury had been sworn in at Winchester Crown Court for the case of Abdinasir Elmi, 26, who has been accused of an alleged sex attack on a woman in Bournemouth, Dorset, on April 22 last year.

Mr Elmi was set to face trial on one count of sexual assault by penetration and a second charge of sexual assault by touching.

However, Judge Rufus Taylor told the jury that he had to discharge him before any evidence could be heard because a Somali interpreter could not be found.

The judge said that The Big Word, the firm responsible for supplying interpreters to the courts, was unable to source an interpreter because “one is ill and one is not answering his phone”.

“If you were facing trial in Mogadishu, you would want to have an interpreter. It would simply be completely unfair to embark on this case without him being able to understand 100 per cent of the case,” he told jurors.

The court was told that Mr Elmi was a “very promising” athlete and a “great hope for the future”.

A previous hearing was told that his application for asylum had been turned down by the Home Office and he was appealing against the decision.

The judge adjourned the case for a new trial to start on April 7, and remanded Mr Elmi in custody until then.

“sentencing had previously been delayed three times due to difficulties securing an interpreter”

https://www.thetfordandbrandontimes.co.uk/news/25825841.driver-spared-jail-a11-crash-paralysed-biker/

6 February 2026

Driver spared jail over A11 crash that paralysed biker

[…] His sentencing had previously been delayed three times due to difficulties securing an officially recognised Malayalam interpreter to translate the hearing for Paily, a language native to the Indian state of Kerala. [...]

PQ: 5 February 2026

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2026-01-26.108221.h

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Translation Services

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 5 February 2026.

James Cleverly Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an estimate of the cost to (a) central and (b) local government of the cost of translation and interpretation services.

Samantha Dixon Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

As under the previous government, this information is not held centrally. The department does not hold this data for other departments or local authorities.