Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2019 to Question 275723 on translation services, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in expenditure between the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.

Spend on language services increased in October 2016 as a result of an intentional move by the Ministry of Justice to increase the quality of the services. A new set of contracts commenced in 2016 which included various improvements based on independent recommendations made about the previous contract. These changes included a more robust performance management regime, improved data and the implementation of a new quality assurance service.

Spend on Language Services is expected to fluctuate due to the nature of the contracts being demand led.