Taxpayers’ bill for interpreters & translators across justice system in just three years revealed
Meanwhile, foreign nationals are costing the UK an estimated £574million a year to keep behind bars.
There are 10,134 foreign inmates in England and Wales — 12 per cent of the prison population.
The typical annual cost of keeping someone in jail is about £56,600, which would put the total bill for accommodating foreign nationals at £574million — more than £1.5million per day.
Albanians are the biggest group, with about 940 inmates.
The figures for interpreting and translation services — disclosed by courts minister Sarah Sackman after a parliamentary question from Tory MP Sir John Hayes — show the Ministry of Justice spent £31.7million in 2022, £36.9million in 2023 and £38.7million in 2024, the latest stats available — up 22 per cent.
More than 1,000 trial days were lost from 2020 to 2024 as interpreters were unavailable, adding to the backlog of cases.
Demand for translation services has doubled since 2020. Requests for Arabic interpreters rocketed by 208 per cent to 11,734 in 2024.
Separate figures reveal 172,889 arrests of foreign citizens were recorded between April 2024 and March 2025 — 473 per day.
The MoJ said: “This Government has returned or deported 11,000 foreign criminals since the election, a 41 per cent increase on the two years prior.
“[Translation] services ensure justice is fair. Without them, cases risk being dragged through costly appeals, driving up the bill for the taxpayer.
“We’re increasing court capacity to help reduce the backlog.”
