Expenditure and languages required for translation services: FOI release
- Published
- 9 September 2025
- Directorate
- Children and Families Directorate
- Topic
- Equality and rights, Public sector
- FOI reference
- FOI/202500461542
- Date received
- 10 April 2025
- Date responded
- 9 May 2025
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
1. You asked for information on expenditure for translation services for calendar years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 to date. You requested that the total spent by Scottish Government be aggregated and broken down by function for which the service was carried out.
2. You requested a list of the languages that the Scottish Government provided translation services for in the calendar year 2024.
Response
I have now completed analysis for the information you request. I detail below the most recent data that has been audited and is available to share. This has been classified by the programme area responsible for occurring the costs.
|
Translation, Interpretation, and Language Services Spend |
Calendar Year |
||||
|
Programme Area |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 (up to end March 2025) |
Grand Total |
|
Admin |
£569.28 |
£249.60 |
£0.00 |
£3,945.00 |
£4,763.88 |
|
Culture and Major Events |
£0.00 |
£780.00 |
£975.00 |
£0.00 |
£1,755.00 |
|
Scottish Affairs Office China |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£1,117.00 |
£1,117.00 |
|
Brussels Office |
£826.35 |
£990.70 |
£78.35 |
£0.00 |
£1,895.40 |
|
International and European Relations |
£3,872.69 |
£5,286.17 |
£9,033.55 |
£279.25 |
£18,471.66 |
|
Government Business and Constitutional Relations |
£382.50 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£382.50 |
|
Response and Readiness |
£0.00 |
£587,738.19 |
£484,101.68 |
£26,130.65 |
£1,097,970.52 |
|
Education Reform |
£0.00 |
£1,520.64 |
£844.80 |
£0.00 |
£2,365.44 |
|
Gaelic and Scots |
£8,355.35 |
£21,299.53 |
£15,682.10 |
£0.00 |
£45,336.98 |
|
Redress Statutory Scheme Delivery |
£528.00 |
£2,596.80 |
£870.00 |
£0.00 |
£3,994.80 |
|
Community Justice Service and Programme |
£110.42 |
- |
£4,830.36 |
£3,043.70 |
£7,984.48 |
|
Parole Board |
£3,407.67 |
£27,836.81 |
£71,043.23 |
£13,288.06 |
£115,575.77 |
|
Digital Health & Care |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£2,880.00 |
£1,800.00 |
£4,680.00 |
|
National Care Service / Adult Social Care |
£0.00 |
£23,290.36 |
£18,250.30 |
£0.00 |
£41,540.66 |
|
ARE Operations |
£3,846.00 |
£2,938.38 |
£16,806.51 |
£6,118.95 |
£29,709.84 |
|
Food Industry Support |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£4,545.00 |
£4,545.00 |
|
Marine Scotland |
£0.00 |
£3,251.34 |
£16,256.70 |
£0.00 |
£19,508.04 |
|
Islands Plan |
£790.74 |
£29,467.00 |
£9,504.50 |
£0.00 |
£39,762.24 |
|
Communities Analysis |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£1,541.25 |
£616.50 |
£2,157.75 |
|
Connected Communities |
£31,842.64 |
£16,645.36 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£48,488.00 |
|
Delivery & Mainstreaming |
£480.00 |
£600.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£1,080.00 |
|
Migration Strategy |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
£1,544.85 |
£858.25 |
£2,403.10 |
|
Social Security Advice, Policy and Programme |
£1,557.00 |
£418.90 |
£2,020.00 |
£1,832.00 |
£5,827.90 |
|
Ukrainian Resettlement |
£30,034.24 |
£196,632.75 |
£241,271.57 |
£190,011.25 |
£657,949.81 |
|
Grand Total |
£86,602.88 |
£921,542.53 |
£897,534.75 |
£253,585.61 |
£2,159,265.77 |
The values above relate to core Scottish Government expenditure and therefore do not include spend incurred by Health Boards, Local Authorities and agencies outside of the core Scottish Government boundary.
1. SPPD only holds information relating to languages utilised by public sector organisations, under the Scottish Government Collaborative Framework for the provision of Interpreting, Translation and Transcription Services. This is not split by organisation and does not include any translation services obtained by public bodies (including Scottish Government) out with this Framework. For calendar year 2024, in total there were 66 different languages provided across a wide range of public sector bodies that may include, Local Authorities, Central Government and NHS health boards. Please see the table below.
Languages required by public sector bodies under the Framework during calendar year 2024
|
Akan |
Hindi |
Polish |
Tigrinian |
|
Albanian |
Hungarian |
Portuguese |
Turkish |
|
Amharic |
Indonesian |
Pothwari |
Ukranian |
|
Arabic |
Italian |
Punjabi |
Urdu |
|
Armenian |
Japanese |
Pushtu |
Vietnamese |
|
Assyrian |
Khmer |
Roma |
Wolof |
|
Bengali |
Korean |
Romanian |
|
|
Bengali-Sylheti |
Kurdish Badini |
Russian |
|
|
Bulgarian |
Kurdish Kurmanji |
Scottish Gaelic |
|
|
Burmese |
Kurdish Sorani |
Shona |
|
|
Cantonese |
Latvian |
Sinhalese |
|
|
Czech |
Lingala |
Slovak |
|
|
Dari |
Lithuanian |
Somali |
|
|
Farsi |
Luganda |
Spanish |
|
|
Filipino |
Malay |
Swahili |
|
|
French |
Malayalam |
Swedish |
|
|
Georgian |
Maltese |
Tagalog |
|
|
German |
Mandarin |
Tamil |
|
|
Greek |
Nepalese |
Telugu |
|
|
Haitian Creole |
Oromo |
Thai |
|
About FOI
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Contact
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Central Correspondence Unit
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Phone: 0300 244 4000
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