Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much their Department has spent on translating documents into languages other than (a) English and (b) other native UK languages in each year since 2023; and what these languages were.

The Department for Business and Trade does not routinely record the costs for translation of documents into other languages separately from other translation and interpretation costs. We can confirm the Department for Business and Trade spent £14,085.54 on translating documents into other languages from April 2023 - July 2025. Other expenses may be excluded from this as they are not recorded at this level of detail.

As the department for economic growth, we support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country. DBT employs teams based in priority markets around the world and those teams often use local language skills to help UK businesses access opportunities to export their goods and services globally. Likewise, they will use local language skills to promote the UK to a global audience, and in particular to attract high value investment to the UK.

Language service needs and spend are assessed to ensure these services offer good value for money for taxpayers while maintaining high standards of service delivery.