Surge in foreign criminals doubles demand for court interpreters
Demand for translation services in British courts has doubled since 2020 because of record levels of immigration and a rise in the number of foreign criminals, official figures have revealed.
The provision of translation services has failed to keep pace, so trials have been delayed. A total of 1,036 trial days have been lost owing to the lack of an interpreter, from a total of 41,156 lost trial days.
The languages causing the rising demand for translation services were Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi, Kurdish and Bengali, according to figures revealed in a parliamentary question submitted by Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary.
The increases reflect the spike in immigration since 2020, both through legal immigration and illegal migration on small boats, and a subsequent rise in the number of foreign citizens passing through Britain’s courts. Separate data gathered through freedom of information requests showed that 172,889 arrests of foreign citizens were recorded between April 2024 and March 2025, an average of 473 a day.
Since 2020 Indians have accounted for the largest number of study and work visas, while Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have accounted for large numbers of students and asylum seekers. Iranian, Iraqi, Turkish and Sudanese migrants have consistently arrived in large numbers on small boats.
The cost of providing translation services has almost doubled over that period, from £21.4 million in 2020 to £38.6 million in 2024.
There were a total of 11,734 requests for Arabic translation services in 2024, the most recent year for which data was available, up 208 per cent since 2020, when there were 3,814 requests. Punjabi requests increased by 114 per cent, from 2,569 to 5,498 requests.
Urdu translator requests were up from 3,859 to 7,630, a 98 per cent increase, while requests for Bengali translators were up 67 per cent from 2,783 to 4,640.
The figures cover requests for translation services for trials in criminal, civil and family courts in England and Wales.
Timothy used the data to attack government plans to restrict the right to a jury trial for thousands of defendants. He argued that ministers should focus on reducing immigration and requiring migrants to speak English.
He said: “David Lammy is attacking jury trials for ideological reasons instead of doing the hard yards of court reform. It is shameful that victims must wait longer for justice because of those who cannot or will not speak English.”
The Ministry of Justice said costs for translation services had risen because the government had poured funding into increasing the number of sitting days. It said its proposals to remove the right to a jury trial for defendants facing a sentence of less than a year went further than recommendations in a review by Sir Brian Leveson, the former appeal court judge, who said that “triable either-way” cases should be heard by a judge and two magistrates in a so-called intermediate court. Similar plans were proposed by The Times Crime and Justice Commission.
Lammy decided to go further by scrapping the proposal for two magistrates, meaning a judge would sit alone to decide verdicts in cases that would until now have been either-way offences, whereby the defendant can elect to be tried by magistrates or by a jury in the crown court.
The ministry said: “This is a purposely misleading interpretation of the figures. Translation costs — essential to a fair trial — have increased as result of record government investment in sitting days, meaning more cases are being heard than ever before.
“But, as Sir Brian Leveson said, investment alone will not bring the backlog under control. Only our plans for reform — similar to those backed by The Times Crime and Justice Commission — will bring caseloads down and deliver swifter justice for victims.”
