Highlights
- Demand for court interpreters in England and Wales has doubled since 2020, driven by immigration and rising foreign national arrests
- 473 foreign nationals arrested per day on average between April 2024 and March 2025
- Translation costs have risen from £21.4m to £38.6m, nearly double in four years
- Arabic requests up 208 per cent since 2020; Punjabi up 114 per cent, Urdu up 98 per cent
THE number of court interpreter requests in England and Wales has doubled since 2020, driven by record levels of immigration and a rising number of foreign nationals appearing before the courts, according to official figures reported by The Times.
The surge has left translation services stretched, causing delays to trials. More than 1,000 trial days have been lost due to the absence of an interpreter, out of 41,156 lost trial days overall.
The languages in greatest demand are Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi, Kurdish and Bengali. The figures were disclosed in parliament after a question tabled by Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary.
Separate data obtained through freedom of information requests showed that foreign nationals were arrested 172,889 times between April 2024 and March 2025, an average of 473 arrests a day.
The cost of providing interpreters in court has risen sharply, from £21.4 million in 2020 to £38.6m in 2024 — an increase of nearly £17m.
According to data, Arabic translation requests alone rose by 208 per cent over the same period, from 3,814 to 11,734. Urdu requests were up 98 per cent, Punjabi up 114 per cent and Bengali up 67 per cent.
The figures cover criminal, civil and family courts across England and Wales and reflect the wider rise in immigration since 2020, through both legal routes and small boat crossings in the Channel.
Timothy used the data to hit out at government plans to restrict the right to jury trial for thousands of defendants accused of less serious offences.
"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," he was quoted as saying.
The ministry of justice pushed back, saying the figures had been misrepresented. It argued that translation costs had risen because the government had invested heavily in increasing court sitting days, meaning more cases were being heard than before.
A spokesperson said the proposed reforms, under which a judge would sit alone to decide verdicts in cases currently eligible for jury trial, would go further than recommendations made by Sir Brian Leveson, the former appeal court judge.
