Tuesday 13 August 2013

An Interpreter, please


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 Justice