More than £20m lost in translation

Interpreters cost the department 11.5m in 2008-09 and 11.8 million in 2007-08.

They were used in HM Courts Service (HMCS), the Tribunals Service, the National Offenders' Management Service (Noms) and in the department's headquarters.

The figures include interpreters' costs for victims in court, but interpreters for suspects are funded by the Home Office via the police.

In a Commons written statement, junior justice Minister Bridget Prentice said errors had been identified in previous written answers to MPs on the cost of interpreters. She said a total of 11,456,000 was spent on interpreters by the MoJ in 2008-09. Some 5.1m was spent in courts and 5.3m in tribunals.

Noms, an agency that joins up prison and probation services and seeks to reduce re-offending, spent 966,000 in the same year.

The Office of the Public Guardian, which supports people who lack mental capacity for making financial decisions, spent 40,000 and MoJ headquarters spent 26,000.

Ms Prentice said the total costs did not include spending on interpreters in magistrates' courts. The Noms figure excluded spending by the National Probation Service, which was held locally by probation boards and trusts, she added.