There has been a sharp rise in the number of requests for translation services in the family and civil courts, new government figures reveal.
A total of 19,548 successful requests for translators and translation services in civil and family courts were made in 2015, compared to just 14,597 the previous year – a jump of close to 5,000 in just 12 months.
In 2013 the figure stood at 10,116.
The language litigants most frequently requested help with was Polish. This famously complex central European tongue accounted for no less than 3,439 of the translations. The next most requested Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, which accounted for 2,365 translations, and then Punjabi from northern India, with 1,199.
Read the report here.
Last year, a family court ruled that the cost of translation services must be borne by the side in need of them in a particular case.