Social Security Scotland spend on translation services: FOI release
- Published
- 13 May 2026
- Topic
- Money and tax, Public sector
- FOI reference
- FOI/202600502465
- Date received
- 20 January 2026
- Date responded
- 13 February 2026
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
Request for information 1:
How much money is spent on translations services for letters per year?
Request for information 2:
Of those translations, how many/much is spent on translating letters to large print format?
Request for information 3:
Can this be broken down per department?
Response
Request for information 1:
The below sets out the total annual expenditure on translation services for letters, broken down by financial year:
- 2021/22: £67,428.45
- 2022/23: £264,299.34
- 2023/24: £1,020,410.85
- 2024/25: £1,123,224.58
Request for information 2:
The total amount spent for large print in 2025 is £26,340.81.
The total amount from July 2024 to December 2024 is £6982.84
The numbers for large print specifically are not available for previous years, since all tasks were requested as Translation until mid-June 2024.
Request for information 3:
Section 17 – Information is not held
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested. This is because we do not capture translations by department.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG