Figures released last week indicate a spectacular increase in spending by UK courtrooms for translation and interpreting services. The bill for such services was £16.7 million in 2004-2005 and increased to £29.3 million in 2007-2008, almost the double. This expenditure is frowned upon by many in the British law enforcement, legal and administrative systems.
They claim the spiralling spending on legal translation services is due to the increase in poor English speakers who find themselves in trouble and subject to police investigations and courtroom hearings and trials. The some 600,000 Eastern European migrants that came to Britain after the expansion of the European Union in 2004 are blamed by many for the doubling of interpreting service costs.
While no studies exist on the typical clients requiring state-funded legal translation aid, it is known that the wages of the translators and interpreters used by British courtrooms and police have not increased significantly over the last years, the cost of these services therefore has increased due to a surge in demand.
UK Parliament representatives seem to agree that the problem comes from the poor level of English many migrants persist in having. The causes and solutions of this problem are, however, a matter of debate: while some representatives argue that permanent residence in the UK should be dependent upon learning English, others criticise the UK government’s cutting of ESL programme funding, and warn that this measure is likely to be one of the causes of the increase in translation costs.
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