Schools: Interpreters and Translation Services
(asked on 1st September 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the total cost of (a) translations and (b) interpretation services in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in each of the last three years.
The schools national funding formula (NFF) allocates core funding to local areas for mainstream schools. The NFF includes an English as an additional language (EAL) factor. Pupils attract this funding to their school if their first language is not English and if they entered the state education system in England in the past three years. The table below shows the total funding allocated through the EAL factor from the 2021/22 to 2025/26 financial years:
Financial Year | Primary EAL funding | Secondary EAL funding | Total EAL funding | EAL funding as a proportion of total NFF funding |
2021/22 | £311 m | £108 m | £420 m | 1.1% |
2022/23 | £307 m | £105 m | £412 m | 1.1% |
2023/24 | £318 m | £116 m | £434 m | 1.0% |
2024/25 | £343 m | £141 m | £484 m | 1.1% |
2025/26 | £365 m | £173 m | £539 m | 1.1% |