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Departmental Translation Service

Answer

The Ministry of Justice was formed on 9 May 2007. Information is available for two complete financial years, 2007-08 and 2008-09. Data for 2009-10 will be available in summer when annual accounts have been prepared and audited.Expenditure on translation services in Ribble Valley and Lancashire by the Department and its agencies.There has been no expenditure recorded within Ribble Valley and Lancashire by HM Courts Service. Information for other parts of the Department is not recorded on a regional basis and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.Expenditure on translation services in England by the Department and its agenciesHM Courts Service and the Tribunals Service are able to isolate expenditure in England which is as follows:

£000
	2007-08	2008-09
HM Courts Service (HMCS)¹	10	27
Tribunals Service	39	53
¹ This figures represents expenditure by Crown courts only as no central records are maintained that breakdown expenditure by magistrates courts.

Other parts of the Department do not maintain records in a way that would enable expenditure in England to be separately identified from expenditure in Wales or Scotland. Total expenditure is shown as follows and will include the cost of translating documents under the Welsh language scheme.

£000
	2007-08	2008-09
Ministry of Justice HQ	273	388
National Offenders Management Service—interpretation and translation¹	868	966
Office of the Public Guardian²	25	25
¹ This figure includes translation costs as well as interpretation costs. The amounts are not separately recorded and can be disaggregated only at disproportionate cost. Additionally, the NOMS figure excludes expenditure by the National Probation Service which is held locally by 42 probation boards and trusts who use separate and different accounting systems. Information could be determined only at disproportionate cost through examination of local records.
² Figures for the Office of Public Guardian are an estimate of the translation component within a wider category of expenditure.

Interpretation and translation services are provided on the basis of need. Costs are kept to a minimum and, when translation and interpretation services are taken together across all territories served by the Ministry of Justice, expenditure has not risen in recent years.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

508 c652-3W; 324421

Session

2009-10

Subjects

Ministry of Justice Translation services

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk