NHS: Translation Services
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 14 November to Question 14378 on NHS Translation Services what the (a) cost for translation of and (b) percentage of communications in each language in e-RS communication letters was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The e-RS translated letters are based on standard templates, so NHS England only pays translation costs when the templates change, or when they add additional languages. The cost incurred in the last five years is £4,213, which breaks down as:
¾ £780 as of June 2019, with 10 languages;
¾ £1,593 as of June 2023, with 25 languages; and
¾ £1,840 as of January 2024, with 25 languages.
In addition, the following table shows the total letters sent and the proportion of translated letters sent each year since April 2019, at a summary level:
Year | Total e-RS letters | Total translated |
2019/20 | 3,050,546 | 3.88% |
2020/21 | 1,056,218 | 3.78% |
2021/22 | 1,454,061 | 4.24% |
2022/23 | 1,496,427 | 4.45% |
2023/24 | 1,147,543 | 6.92% |
2024/25 | 689,934 | 8.09% |
Note: for 2024, the data is not for the whole year, but for the year to date.
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