Latest Expert Witness News

Metropolitan Police translator bill to rise to £20m

Police in London are being hit with a soaring bill for translators to deal with foreign criminals, victims and witnesses. A Metropolitan Police chief has admitted that the cost of language services is set to rise to £20 million by 2012. And the trend could continue as the capital's population is forecast to grow by 750,000 to 8.1million by 2016.

Its cost has grown by 45 per cent over the past four years with more than 300 languages now being spoken in the capital which has at least 50 "distinct communities" of more than 10,000 people. In the past financial year, Scotland Yard spent £12.5 million on language services, including on public safety campaigns.

The force uses 413 individual contractors specialising in about 100 languages on its call-out list and seeks extra assistance from the National Register of Public Service Interpreters during periods of peak demand.

The Met now wants to transform its language service with a £5.6 million programme including video links for police stations, a new computer system to allocate translators, better training and use of staff with linguistic skills, as well as new software to initially identify languages being spoken. This overhaul aims to hold down the annual language bill to £13.3 million.

back