Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, 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.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice has a statutory duty to provide Language Services to enable access to justice for users for whom English is not their first language and those who require visual and tactile services, under the provision of the Equality Act.
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.
In FY 23/24 the total contracted spend was £915,037.52.
In FY 24/25 the total contracted spend was £1,003,283.32.
In FY 25/26 so far, the total contracted spend is £256,707.82.
The languages in this data exclude written translations into English, Welsh and Braille.
The languages translated into from English (United Kingdom) are:
Albanian (Albania)
Amharic (Ethiopia)
Arabic (Classical)
Arabic (Egypt)
Arabic (Modern Standard) Middle Eastern
Arabic (Modern Standard) North African
Arabic (Morocco)
Armenian (Armenia)
Bangla (Bangladesh)
Bosnian (Latin, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
Burmese
Burmese (Myanmar)
Catalan (Catalan)
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Croatian (Latin, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Czech (Czech Republic)
Danish (Denmark)
Dari (Afghanistan)
Dutch (Netherlands)
Estonian (Estonia)
Filipino (Philippines)
Finnish (Finland)
French (Belgium)
French (France)
Georgian (Georgia)
German (Austria)
German (Germany)
Greek (Greece)
Gujarati (India)
Hebrew (Israel)
Hindi (India)
Hungarian (Hungary)
Icelandic (Iceland)
Indonesian (Indonesia)
Italian (Italy)
Japanese (Japan)
Kinyarwanda (Rwanda)
Kiswahili (Kenya)
Korean (Korea)
Kurdish (Bahdini)
Kurdish (Sorani)
Latvian (Latvia)
Lingala (Congo DRC)
Lithuanian (Lithuania)
Macedonian (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
Malay (Malaysia)
Malayalam (India)
Maltese (Malta)
Mirpuri (Central Asia)
Mongolian (Cyrillic, Mongolia)
Nepali (Nepal)
Norwegian, Bokmål (Norway)
Norwegian, Nynorsk (Norway)
Oromo (Ethiopia)
PahariPotwari (Central Asia)
Pashto (Afghanistan)
Persian (Afghanistan)
Persian (Iran)
Polish (Poland)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Punjabi (India)
Punjabi (Pakistan)
Romanian (Romania)
Romany (Europe)
Russian (Russia)
Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia)
Serbian (Latin, Serbia)
Shona (Latin, Zimbabwe)
Sinhala (Sri Lanka)
Slovak (Slovakia)
Slovenian (Slovenia)
Somali (Somalia)
Spanish (Argentina)
Spanish (Latin America)
Spanish (Mexico)
Spanish (Spain)
Swedish (Sweden)
Tajik (Cyrillic, Tajikistan)
Tamazight (Latin, Algeria)
Tamil (India)
Tetum (Timor)
Thai (Thailand)
Tigrinya (Eritrea)
Turkish (Turkey)
Ukranian (Ukraine)
Urdu (Islamic Republic of Pakistan)
Uzbek (Latin, Uzbekistan)
Vietnamese (Vietnam)
Wolof (Senegal)
Yoruba (Nigeria)
The Languages translated into from English (United States) are:
Arabic (Egypt)
Hungarian (Hungary)
Polish (Poland)
Romanian (Romania)
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Serbian government on (a) human, (b) civil and (c) political rights in that country.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign Secretary and I underlined the UK's strong support for fundamental rights and the rule of law, and the important role of civil society in Serbia during our respective visits to Belgrade earlier this year. In the context of continuing protests, we continue to stress to the Serbian leadership that, in any society, it is important that the rights to peaceful freedom of expression and assembly are respected. We continue to raise these issues via our Ambassador in Belgrade, and discussions with ministerial counterparts.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what actions they have taken recently to uphold the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK is working with international partners and the High Representative to bolster domestic institutions and actors to respond to threats to the Dayton Peace Agreement and protect Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH's) territorial integrity, and to encourage constructive engagement from leaders in the wider region. The Foreign Secretary's visits to BiH on 6-7 May and Serbia on 2 April underlined those efforts, as did the UK Special Envoy to the Western Balkans's address to the UN Security Council on 6 May. Minister Doughty engaged international partners at a meeting of the 'Quint' on 15 May and met BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković and the High Representative of BiH on 12 April.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with European counterparts on the detention of demonstrators in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We and international partners continue to track ongoing political protests and responses in Serbia, including a number of arrests and detentions of demonstrators in Novi Sad and other cities. The UK continues to stress to Serbia's leaders the importance of respecting citizens' rights to freedom of assembly and expression, as the Foreign Secretary did when visiting Belgrade last month.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of the detention of demonstrators in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We and international partners continue to track ongoing political protests and responses in Serbia, including a number of arrests and detentions of demonstrators in Novi Sad and other cities. The UK continues to stress to Serbia's leaders the importance of respecting citizens' rights to freedom of assembly and expression, as the Foreign Secretary did when visiting Belgrade last month.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many UK nationals resident in Serbia have claimed unemployment benefits in each year since 2020.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK does not pay a UK Unemployment Benefit to people resident in the Balkan region, and the UK has no information about UK nationals resident in those countries receiving benefits administered by those countries.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the European Court of Human Rights ruling against Serbia regarding the extradition of Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali; and what steps they have taken to address the misuse of Interpol Red Notices by authoritarian states.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK regularly considers and monitors European Court of Human Rights cases, but does not comment in detail on judgments against other countries. We strongly support INTERPOL's efforts to ensure that systems are in place to protect individuals' human rights in line with Article 3 of INTERPOL's Constitution which strictly forbids any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character. The Home Office works closely with INTERPOL and the National Crime Agency to monitor the effectiveness of existing safeguards. We encourage INTERPOL to uphold international human rights obligations and we won't hesitate to recommend further reforms to INTERPOL as necessary.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if his Department will support the request by over 500,000 Serbian petitioners to the UN for an international investigation into the use of sonic weaponry against protestors by the Serbian police.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK consistently advocates for the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, globally. During his recent visit to Serbia, the Foreign Secretary underlined to government interlocutors the importance of protecting and respecting these rights, and of maintaining high standards in policing peaceful demonstrations accordingly.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what types of combat boot are issued to service personnel as standard; and in which country is each manufactured.
Answered by Maria Eagle
Under the Logistics Commodities and Services Transformation contract, the Ministry of Defence procures combat boots from the following companies:
There is no single standard set of combat boots issued across the Services. Instead, a range of combat boots are issued to suit different operational environments.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the resignation of the Government in Serbia on stability in that region.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Following confirmation by Serbia's Parliament of Prime Minister Vucevic's resignation on 19 March, Serbia's government is operating in technical capacity pending either formation of a new government by 18 April, or potential elections thereafter. We look forward to working with the new government when it is formed. We continue to underline to Serbia's leaders the importance of playing a constructive role in regional stability, as I did most recently when I spoke to Foreign Minister Djuric on 27 March.