£2.3m a year lost in translation by police

INTERPRETERS and translators cost Yorkshire police forces over £2m a year because of the growing number of migrants in the county.

Figures obtained by the Yorkshire Post show that the four Yorkshire police forces spent a total of £2,305,825 on interpreters in the last year – up nearly 10 per cent from the previous year's figure of £2,085,627.

West Yorkshire Police spends by far the most annually on interpreters, with £1,278,000 being spent in the last year – up over £80,000 from the previous year.

In the past two years, it was revealed that West Yorkshire have paid for experts to translate over 70 different languages. In 2007, the most in-demand language was Polish. Phone-interpreters alone charged the force £30,675 for just 1,321 Polish calls.

The figures revealed staggering charges for interpreting, with West Yorkshire Police paying over £30 to interpreters for a call lasting just 20 minutes.

South Yorkshire Police was the second highest spender last year with £483,134 being shelled out on translation services – up almost £45,000 on the previous year alone.

Humberside Police and North Yorkshire Police spent £361,168 and £183,523, respectively....

Critics criticised the spiralling costs. Policy analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance Matthew Sinclair said: "Hard-working families in Yorkshire are being asked to support an incredibly high amount of spending on translation. Of course, the police will often need to pay for interpreters and translation services as a part of their inquiries.With the economy entering a recession everyone needs to tighten their belts and the police should be no exception."

The comments came after Immigration Minister Phil Woolas launched a stinging criticism on the Government's record of managing migration. Mr Woolas criticised Labour's failure to fund asylum removals properly which he said had caused "untold human misery and division". He also condemned the use of translation services instead of encouraging migrants to learn English....

This is putting huge pressure on our public services. Our police forces are being stretched because they are being forced to spend so much money on these services. I shudder to think how much these costs will be in five years," he said.

He said: "With police budgets becoming more and more stretched, and demand getting higher from people who want to see more police on the streets, we can ill-afford to squander this amount of money each year."

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: "West Yorkshire Police is the fourth largest force in England and Wales and by far the largest in the Yorkshire and Humber region and it is also one of the most diverse....

Police are now required to use independent translators from the National Register of Public Service Interpreters, who are paid up to £33 an hour for their services. Extra pay for night or weekend work can take the hourly rate to £66 per hour.

South Yorkshire Police said: "The general population in South Yorkshire continues to become more diverse and obviously this has a knock-on effect in terms of a rise in the number of crime victims, suspects and witnesses who have English as a second language."

SOURCE

Tarn Lass