FOI Request for Interpreting and Translation Services Spending

The request was successful.

Dear Birmingham City Council,

Under FOI legislation, could you please provide me with financial
information relating to the following services:

• costs of face to face interpreting services
• costs of telephone interpreting services
• costs of written translation services

I would appreciate it if you could provide us with the above
information for the last 2 financial years, the current year and
budget for next year?

I would also appreciate if you could please provide me with the following information:

1. The annual cost for each of the services
2. Whether interpreting hourly fee is inclusive of travel or plus costs?
3. How much is the cost per hour?
4. Breakdown of the top 30 most popular languages used over these periods
5. Details of your current provider(s) (company name, date contract
was awarded)
6. Spend per language service provider (LSP)
7. When are your current language service contracts with your LSPs
due to end?

8. Where do you advertise your face to face interpreting and translation contracts?
9. Name, addresses and contact point(s) for your Procurement
Department responsible for awarding Interpreting and Translation
contracts.

If you do not hold this information, please feel free to forward
this FOI request on to the relevant body.

Yours sincerely,

Seyar Seyar

FOI Mailbox, Birmingham City Council

Dear Seyar

Please see the response to a similar resent request below:

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information

I am writing in respect of your recent request for information held by the Authority under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

REQUEST:

Under FOI legislation, could you please provide me with financial information relating to the:
• costs of face to face interpreting services
• costs of telephone interpreting services
• costs of written translation services

I would appreciate it if you could send all of the above information for the last 2 financial years, the current year and budget for next year?

I would be grateful if you could provide information that includes:

1. The annual cost for each of the services
2. Breakdown of the top 10 most popular languages
3. Details of your current provider(s) (company name, date contract was awarded)
4. Spend per language service provider (LSP)
5. When are your current language service contracts with your LSPs due to end?
6. Where do you advertise your face to face interpreting/telephone interpreting/translation contracts?
7. Name, addresses and contact point(s) for your Procurement Department responsible for awarding Interpreting and Translation contracts.

To help clarify this response we have split it into two parts.

RESPONSE: Part 1

Brasshouse Translation and Interpretation Service (BTIS) is an in-house unit which provides services to Birmingham City Council (BCC). It sits within Birmingham Adult Education Service at the Brasshouse, which is a specialist language centre.

1. The annual cost for each of the services:-
• costs of face to face interpreting services
• costs of telephone interpreting services
• costs of written translation services

The current cost of the Service is as below:-

Financial Year 2012/13 Net expenditure - £193,045.23
2013/14 Net expenditure - £191,539.57
2014/15 Net expenditure - £184,402.00* (anticipated)

Note: No budget for 2015/16 has yet been prepared.

We do not hold the data in the format that would enable us to break the costs down between face to face interpreting services, telephone interpreting services and written translation services, as this is not required for operational purposes.

2. Breakdown of the top 10 most popular languages

The top 12 languages the Service most frequently uses are:-
Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Czech, Farsi, Gujarati, Kurdish (Sorani Dialect), Punjabi, Pushto (including Dari dialect), Romanian, Slovak, Somali, Urdu (including Mirpuri)

3. Details of your current provider(s) (company name, date contract was awarded)

The provider is in-house and has been since 1992.

4. Spend per language service provider (LSP)

BTIS covers all languages and the current cost (Net expenditure) of the Service was £191,539.57 in the financial year 2013/14.

5. When are your current language service contracts with your LSPs due to end?

The work is currently undertaken in house therefore there is no contract.

6. Where do you advertise your face to face interpreting/telephone interpreting/translation contracts?

Contracts for interpreting and translation are not currently advertised as there is an in-house provider.

7. Name, addresses and contact point(s) for your Procurement Department responsible for awarding Interpreting and Translation contracts.

The Procurement Section at 10, Woodcock Street, Aston, B7 4BL would be the contact point for bidding for contracts, however as stated above this is currently an in-house provider.

RESPONSE: Part 2

Background:

In addition to the service provided by the Brasshouse Translation and Interpretation Service (BTIS) Birmingham City Council, Education Appeals Section, also provide an interpreting service. They use a company called Convocco Ltd, to offer face to face interpreting at exclusion reviews and admission appeals. When the invitation letter is sent to the parent informing them of their hearing date, it also notifies them that if they require an interpreter, they should contact the Education Appeals Team.

Under FOI legislation, could you please provide me with financial information relating to the:
• costs of face to face interpreting services

See below in relation to each relevant question

• costs of telephone interpreting services

Not applicable

• costs of written translation services

Not applicable

I would appreciate it if you could send all of the above information for the last 2 financial years, the current year and budget for next year?

I would be grateful if you could provide information that includes:

1. The annual cost for each of the services

The cost for provision of interpretation services to the Education Appeals Section by Convocco Ltd., for the past two financial years is as follows:-

2012/13 - £5,865
2013/14 - £6,112

Birmingham City Council are unable to predict how much will be spent in future years as it depends on how many appeals/reviews the Council receive and, out of those, how many parents request an interpreter.

2. Breakdown of the top 10 most popular languages

The ten most popular languages Birmingham City Council, Education Appeals Section is required to provide interpreters for are:-

Somali, Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Pushto, Punjabi, Polish, French, Spanish, Hindi.

3. Details of your current provider(s) (company name, date contract was awarded)

The current provider is Convocco Ltd. This service started in September 2008 at that time Convocco Ltd., were trading as ALS.

4. Spend per language service provider (LSP)

Please see the response to 1 above.

5. When are your current language service contracts with your LSPs due to end?

Birmingham City Council does not have a permanent contract with Convocco Ltd., as this service is only utilised as and when required. As explained above the interpreting service offered is face to face at hearings. When the invitation letter is sent to the parent informing them of their hearing date, it also notifies them that if they require an interpreter to contact the Education Appeals Team.

6. Where do you advertise your face to face interpreting/telephone interpreting/translation contracts?

Details of Birmingham City Council contract can be found via the link below:-

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellit...

7. Name, addresses and contact point(s) for your Procurement Department responsible for awarding Interpreting and Translation contracts.

The Procurement Section at 10, Woodcock Street, Aston, B7 4BL would be the contact point for bidding for contracts.

Whilst we have undertaken a thorough search of the information held by Birmingham City Council, it may be that, due to the size and amount of information held by Birmingham City Council, some information may have been inadvertently missed.

If you have any information which may assist us in determining or locating any missed information, we would be grateful if you would contact us with details of this information, so that we can conduct a further search.

If you are not satisfied with the response you may ask for an internal review. Please contact the corporate team at the address below:

Corporate Information Governance Team
Performance & Information (WS)
PO Box 16366
Birmingham
B2 2YY
or
[email address]

If subsequently you are not satisfied with the Council’s decision you may apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at the following address:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545745
Web Address: www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Corporate Information Govenance Team

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