An MP requested in Parliament for the DWP to clarify how a lot it had spent
The DWP has allotted greater than £500,000 for translation providers in the course of the present yr. The small print emerged following an inquiry from Reform UK MP Lee Anderson concerning the Authorities’s expenditure on providers this yr.
In a written parliamentary query, he particularly requested details about the DWP’s spending on translating paperwork into languages past English and different native UK languages, and the way a lot had been spent annually from 2023 onwards.
The MP additionally requested particulars about which languages the division had commissioned translations for. DWP minister Andrew Western offered the response. His figures revealed that the DWP has expended £546,323.38 on translation providers in the course of the present yr to this point.
The earlier yr noticed the division spend a complete of £882,118 for these providers, whereas 2023’s whole expenditure reached £707,777.12. Mr Western additionally shared particulars of which languages the division had offered translation providers into.
These embody:
- Oromo ( Afan)
- Urdu
- Pakistani Punjabi
- Kinyarwanda
- Castilian
- Greek
- Romanian
- Bengali
- Pashtu
- Swedish
- Lithuanian
- German
- Tamil
- Gujarati
- Spanish
- Georgian
- Danish
- Portuguese (Brazilian)
- Tagalog (Filipino)
- Thai
- Italian
- Kazakh
- Norwegian
- Hungarian
- Welsh
- Flemish
- French
- Somali
- Tigrinya
- Malay (Malaysian)
- Arabic
- Braille (Unified English)
- Estonian
- Conventional Chinese language
- Japanese
- Sinhalese
- Farsi (Persian)
- Slovenian
- Latvian (Lettish)
- Spanish (LatAm)
- Vietnamese
- Dari
- Serbian
- Danish
- English (Simple Learn)
- Tanzanian Swahili
- BSL (British Signal Language)
- Amharic
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ukrainian
- Croatian
- Korean
- Catalan
- Galician
- Finnish
- Kurdish / Kurdish Sorani
- Kurdish Kurmanji
- Norwegian
- Turkish
- Bosnian
- Macedonian
- Nepali
- Uzbek
- Russian
- Dutch
- Maltese
- Hebrew
- Portuguese
- Polish
- Czech
- Albanian
- Bulgarian
- Hindi
- Simplified Chinese language
- Slovak
- Icelandic
- Indian Punjabi
- Sindhi.
Former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe beforehand requested in Parliament whether or not the DWP would possibly undertake a coverage of not providing translation and interpretation providers for audio system of non-UK languages when accessing its providers. Mr Western additionally responded to stipulate the Authorities’s place on this matter, offering his response in Could of this yr.
He stated: “DWP has a statutory obligation to supply language providers to its prospects in step with the Equality Act. The goal of the service is to supply spoken and written translation providers for workers and prospects who’re deaf, laborious of listening to or don’t converse English as a primary language with a purpose to entry DWP providers.”
He talked about that the language service wants and spending are evaluated to make sure they symbolize “good worth for cash for taxpayers”. He additionally stated that the DWP has “no plans” to cease offering these language providers.
