FoI Request Questionnaire
Some of the questions in this questionnaire allow for a quick answer, simply by deleting Yes or No as
appropriate, but others require more detailed answers. We thank you in advance for doing your best
to answer the questionnaire in the most complete way you can.
1 What is the size of the resident population that your organisation serves?
Response: 646,076
1.1 What percentage of the resident population in the area that your organisation serves are
non-native English speakers?
Response: 4.3%
1.2 Does your organisation predict that the number of non-native English speakers living in the
area that you serve will increase, reduce or stay the same in the next 5 years?
Response: Increase
2 Does your organisation hire any professional written translation or spoken interpreting
services to aid communication with people who may have difficulties understanding
English?
Response: Yes
2.1 If your organisation hires professional translation or interpreting services, for what type of
material do you use these services?
E.g., do you hire professional translation services to translate website content,
correspondence, legal documents? Do you hire interpreting services for meetings, interviews,
anything else?.
Response: Face to face spoken translation; British Sign Language: Telephone interpretation;
document translation and ancillary services; video interpretation
2.2 If your organisation hires professional translation or interpreting services, can you please
provide figures for how much was spent by your organisation on these services and what
percentage of your total expenditure this amounted to for the last 4 financial years?
Response: Noting that 18/19 and 19/20 include consolidations from pre-merger
organisations
Financial year Translation & interpreting
expenditure
% of total
expenditure
2018/19: £ 130,084 0.05 %
2019/20: £ 93,076 0.04 %
2020/21: £ 60,828 0.02 %
2021/22: £ 116,868 0.05 %
2.3 Does your organisation predict that the percentage of spending on translation and
interpreting services will increase, reduce or stay the same in the next 5 years?
Response: Increase
3 Is machine translation e.g. a translation app such as Google Translate. used in any way in
your organisation?
Response: No
3.1 If machine translation is used in your organisation, under what circumstances is it used?
Please specify by whom, in which context, using which tools, and the reason of use..
Response:
4 Does your organisation follow a formal policy approving, prohibiting or regulating the use
of machine translation tools in your organisation?
Response:
4.1 If your organisation follows a formal policy for the use of machine translation, can you attach
a copy of such policy to your response and/or provide a link to where it can be accessed?
Response:
5 Has your organisation carried out a risk assessment of possible consequences, for your
organisation and/or for the people the organisation serves, from the use of machine
translation?
Response:
5.1 If your organisation has carried out a risk assessment of the use of machine translation,
please can you specify the risks your organisation identified?
Response:
6 Do you have an established line of accountability in the event of negative outcomes that
may arise from the use of machine translation?
E.g., an incident caused by misinformation in an important document, or by
miscommunication between staff and member of the public using a phone app..
Response:
6.1 If you have an established line of accountability, can you explain how this guides response
procedures to a possible negative outcome from the use of machine translation?
Response:
7 Is any training provided on the use of machine translation in your organisation?
Response:
7.1 If training is provided on the use of machine translation in your organisation, can you please
provide an overview of the training offered?
Response:
8 Does your organisation have any other procedures in place to adjust your communication
strategy for people who may have difficulties understanding English? If so, please explain.
Response: Trust Policy provides detail on what support can be offered in the event of an
emergency situation where it may be permissible for colleagues not to use the Trust’s
preferred professional interpretation service
FOI Request
Thank you very much for your response to the FoI request that we sent you on 8th November 2023. Your input is extremely appreciated and valued. We would like to ask for your collaboration one last time, by fully reviewing your answers and updating them as deemed adequate, in view of the information provided below and in the attachments.
Please refer to the attached document Reference Lists. to help quickly identify your answer to our FoI request. The document contains the name, date of response and reference number if provided. of all authorities that have been involved in this request.
Allow us to explain the context of this FoI request. Your answers are included in a global study on the challenges of public service organisations dealing with foreign languages, and their preparedness for the use of machine translation, a very common application of Artificial Intelligence AI.. We contacted over 500 public service organisations, consisting of all NHS Trusts, Police Forces and Local Councils in England. Previous studies have confirmed that most organisations do not have provisions for managing risks of using AI or machine translation specifically. Yet, there is sufficient evidence that these tools are very regularly used in these services, and that there is a real risk of harm caused by their misuse. Our research aims specifically at identifying good examples in public service organisations of the capacity to respond to these current societal and technological challenges.
We hope you understand the complexity of this project and the reason why we are asking you to review your answers. We have received very diverse replies from the different organisations we contacted, some of which have initially misinterpreted our request as not corresponding totally to the provisions of an FoI instrument, or found some of our questions ambiguous, or to be requesting information that we did not intend to collect.
This review request aims at giving all authorities equal opportunity to be duly represented, by sending to each and every one the clarifications that a few requested. Please read the attached PDF document FOI Q&A. and update your answers in view of the information provided. The document may seem excessively long, but for most organisations, it will simply confirm that you have given the adequate answers. Some of you will even recognise many of the clarifications. We ask that you please check the main section first, which answers queries about the questionnaire as a whole, and then the explanation of each question carefully.