The demand for
translators and interpreters in the UK is on the rise. Recent numbers show that
the Government’s expenditure on translation and interpreting services is higher
year by year.
Last year, NHS spent
more than £16million on interpreters to help their patients from foreign
countries communicate with healthcare specialists. Based on the information
from the 63 NHS trusts, the top-requested language in 2012 was Polish (which
has also been ranked as the second most commonly spoken language in the UK). The
demand for Arabic and Slovak interpreters is also significant – both were
classified as second.
The 20 most frequently
demanded languages are (in alphabetical order): Arabic, Bengali, Czech, Farsi, French,
Gorani, Kurdish, Lithuanian,
Mandarin, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Somali, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese
Source: Ministry of JusticeIt’s not only healthcare system that needs translators and interpreters. Last year, the Ministry of Justice signed a £42m contract for translation and interpreting services. The cost of interpreting for the UK’s Crown Courts is steadily increasing by over £1m every three years.
Interpreters also
frequently work with the Councils, which spend more than £1.1m a month (£43.5
over the past three years, according to the figures provided by 352 local
authorities in England) to communicate with non-English speaking residents. A
considerable number of requests concerns complex child protection cases where
the Councils are obliged to provide support.
Kent is the highest spending authority with a three-year
bill of £2.2million.While the top spending single city is Coventry, at
£1.9million. The London boroughs collectively allocate a budget of £15million
for translation and interpreting services.
The
figures clearly illustrate the growth and future potential for the translation
industry. With the free movement of workers in the EU, there will be continuous
influx of non-English speaking workforce, and therefore, interpreters will be
always in demand in hospitals, courts, prisons and other institutions. Although the government is planning to
introduce new schemes that will help foreigners learn English, it is doubtful
that they will be able to reach such proficiency to be able to understand what a
judge says at a court hearing or when a doctor describes a complex treatment of
their kidneys.
Image: www.express.co.uk
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ReplyDeleteThis is good news, and an information-rich post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments! I am glad you liked the post and found it interesting. I will try to write more posts like this in the future, so watch this space. Thanks again!
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