Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202500466088
Date received: 14 May 2025
Date responded: 12 June 2025
Information requested
Request for Information 1: The total cost incurred by Social Security Scotland on translation and interpretation services in the calendar years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 to date.
Request for Information 2: Please break this down by the type of service provided (for example, documents translated, in person interpreting, telephone calls, video calls).
Request for Information 3: Provide a list of the languages that were translated or interpreted in each of the above calendar years.
Request for Information 4: Please also provide the number of interpreting requests were placed and successfully filled in each of the above calendar years.
Response
Request for Information 1 & 2:
This information has been provided by our supplier, Global Connections. Due to more robust processes and systems for the tracking of financial information, these figures are more accurate and up to date than information provided previously. Please note that this information is held in financial year (e.g. 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025), not calendar year.
| 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 | 24/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Face to Face | £211.62 | £1,567.01 | £1,292.08 | £916.53 |
| Remote Video | £11.60 | £46,788.56 | £28,294.08 | £12,514.80 |
| Telephone Pre-Booked | £1,805.54 | £301.60 | £88,000.91 | £75,054.44 |
| Telephone On Demand | £26,205.85 | £4,948.44 | £96,076.81 | £146,948.06 |
| Translation of Letters | £67,428.45 | £264,299.34 | £1,020,410.85 | £1,123,224.58 |
| Proof Reading | £0 | £0 | £41,035.12 | £775.03 |
| British Sign language (translations) | £7,710 | £5,961 | £1,037.55 | £8,285 |
| Total | £103,373.06 | £323,865.95 | £1,276,147.40 | £1,367,718.44 |
Request for Information 3:
For calendar years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 to date, Social Security Scotland has interpreted or translated the following languages:
Afrikaans, Akan, Albanian, Algerian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Assyrian, Belarusian, Bengali, British Sign Language, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Dari, Dibo, Dutch, Edo, Estonian, Farsi, Filipino, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Konkani, Korean, Krio, Kurdish, Kurdish Bahdini, Kurdish Kurmanji, Kurdish Sorani, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Luganda, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Mandinka, Moldovan, Nepalese, Norwegian, Oromo, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese Brazilian), Punjabi, Romanian, Romany, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Sinhalese, Slovakian, Slovenian, Somali, Sorani, Spanish, Sudanese, Swahili, Swedish, Sylheti, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinyan, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Wolof and Yoruba.
Request for Information 4:
| Year | Total Interpreting Requests | Requests filled |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 2,911 | 2,909 |
| 2022-23 | 10,268 | 10,162 |
| 2023-24 | 16,595 | 16,422 |
| 2024-25 | 19,052 | 18,400 |
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.