‘Shortage of interpreters hits public service jobs’
INDUSTRY GROUPS SAY LINGUISTS SEEK BETTER PAYING WORK AT STREAMING PLATFORMS
BRITAIN is suffering a shortage in translators and interpreters in public services with some leaving to dub programmes for streaming giant Netflix, according to experts.
Industry groups said there is a lack of qualified linguists working for the police, courts, GP surgeries and hospitals due to low pay. Some are now providing subtitles or dubbing shows on Netflix, where viewing figures for foreign language increased by more than 50 per cent last year.
Jo Sidhu QC, chair of The Criminal Bar Association, said from his experience of nearly 30 years as a barrister in hundreds of trials, he has noticed the “poor pay” received by translators and interpreters has made it almost impossible to recruit and retain enough of them.
He told Eastern Eye: “I’m not surprised that many have defected to other better paid work. “Trials will now face further disruption and victims and defendants will suffer further delays because interpreters cannot be found.
“Right now, the courts cannot even find enough criminal barristers and judges to deal with the 75,000 cases in the backlog.
“This crisis in manpower was entirely predictable. If you don’t pay people fairly then they will leave the industry as we have seen with lorry drivers.
“It’s time the government stopped making excuses and took urgent action to recruit more interpreters or otherwise the courts will be forced to abandon trials and the public will be furious.”
It comes after the Migration Advisory Committee recommended last year that interpreters and translators should be added to the official skills shortage list.
The use of their services by police, courts and healthcare services has increased by about seven per cent each year.
CEO of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), Paul Wilson, said over the past 10-15 years public service interpreting services have been outsourced by various government departments to large contractors. He told Eastern Eye: “This has resulted in a substantial downward pressure on the rates paid to freelance interpreters who make up probably 95 per cent plus of the workforce.
“As a result, many interpreters have decided to leave the sector, or indeed the profession as a whole.
“Interpreting is a highly skilled profession – very often interpreters are qualified to post graduate level – and they deserve to
be recognised and paid appropriately for their work. ITI continues to campaign for this recognition and for better pay and working conditions for interpreters through its membership of Professional Interpreters for Justice.”
Among the services available include Luton Translation and Interpreting Service in Bedfordshire and The Language Shop which is part of Newham Council in London. Clear Voice Interpreting Services works with the charity Migrant Voice to help refugees.
The number of refugees using its interpreting services has more than doubled in the past 18 months from countries, including Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country in September.
Ilir Hoti, head of operations at Clear Voice Interpreting Services, said: “Many of
our clients work in the immigration sector and language shortages are therefore particularly affected by current events.
“For instance, the last few months has seen increased need for Dari and Pashto interpreters, driven by the unfolding situation in Afghanistan.
“Shortages can impact our clients’ ability to support vulnerable people arriving in the UK. It is vital that everyone has equal access to services, regardless of their language skills.”
Clear Voice has an InPower Project which offers fully-funded Community Interpreting qualifications to refugees.
Some 37 previously unemployed refugees now work with Clear Voice as freelance interpreters with a further nine undertaking training.
Hoti added it will be expanding the scheme in 2022 and its aim is to fund training for 128 refugees over the year, “helping them settle in the UK while also tackling the demand for language services.”
Professor Jorge Diaz-Cintas, of the Centre for Translation Studies at University College London, said: “With the arrival of Netflix, but also newcomers like Disney Plus, it has had a knock-on effect on the number of people they need to translate these programmes.
“The impact has been felt at many different levels – there is a huge volume of material that needs to be translated and they need more people to do the translation.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman told this newspaper there is no evidence of a shortage of interpreters working in the criminal justice system and complaints on the issue have fallen since 2014.