Scotland Yard spent £25million translating for 70,000 foreign nationals in four years

SCOTLAND Yard spent £25million translating for 70,000 foreign nationals over the past four years.

20:22, Tue, Mar 17, 2015 | UPDATED: 15:13, Fri, Apr 24, 2015

Scotland Yard GETTY

Britain'd biggest police force paid an average of £6.3million a year

Official figures reveal Britain’s biggest police force paid an average £6.3million a year for suspects arrested in London, plus witnesses and victims, since 2011.

Campaigners have criticised the bill – which is enough to pay for an extra 286 officers.

Across the UK, the figure is likely to top £100million. London MEP Gerard Batten said: “Open-door immigration encourages Europe’s criminals to come to the UK.

“The translation and interpretation bill is a fraction of the cost of crime on society, which would be avoidable if we were able to exclude foreign criminals.

“We can’t because of the EU’s freedom-ofmovement rules.” Around one in five people in London do not speak English as their first language.

There are around 150,000 Polish immigrants, 115,000 who speak Bengali, 55,000 Somalians and 40,000 Romanians.

The Met said it was legally obliged to proved interpretation services.