From Pashtu to Tagalog: How translations into 28 languages cost Cambridgeshire's public purse £1.5m

Cambridgeshire's public purse has forked out more than £1.5 million on translation costs over the past four years, the News can reveal.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary has been the biggest hit by the costs, spending £1.1m since 2011/12 on hundreds of agency interpreters.

A spokesman said: “The force manages language service requests in a way that minimises waiting times and saves money.

"We also have a number of multi-lingual support officers, from within local communities, who assist victims, witnesses and suspects.

"Many members of police staff are also multi-lingual and their skills are utilised where possible.”

Translation set Cambridgeshire County Council back around £340,000 over the same time frame. The bulk of the spending was for children’s social care, to support case work with families.

Cllr Joan Whitehead, chairman of the council’s children and young people committee, said: “The population of Cambridgeshire is increasingly diverse. 

"Across the county 9.8 per cent of school children are from a minority ethnic community, with significant numbers from Indian, Bangladeshi and Gypsy, Roma traveller backgrounds.

“With this as our background, CFA recognises that it will need to continue to access interpreters and translators to deliver its statutory services effectively in support of children.”

Cambridge City Council spent around £25,000 over the same timeframe. Costs can include over-the-phone translation, as well as translating leaflets and other documents.

All those languages

Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Kurdish Sorani, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Malayalam, Polish, Portuguese, Pashtu, Russian, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, Shona/bantu, Turkish, Thai, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese, as well as British Sign Language.

The Third Reich

The Third Reich

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are common names for the German Reich from 1933 to 1945, when it was under control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist totalitarian state which controlled nearly all aspects of life. Nazi Germany ceased to exist after the Allied Forces defeated Germany in May 1945, ending World War II in Europe.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer(leader) of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitler's hands, and his word became above all laws. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahns (high speed highways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.

Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples (the Nordic race) were considered the purest of the Aryan race, and therefore the master race. Jews and others deemed undesirable were persecuted and murdered. Opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed. Members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotising oratory to control public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others.

Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. It seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940 and threatened Great Britain. Reichskommissariats took brutal control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned and murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. The implementation of the regime's racial policies culminated in the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide turned against the Third Reich, and it suffered major military defeats in 1943. Large-scale bombing of Germany escalated in 1944, and the Nazis retreated from Eastern and Southern Europe. Following the Allied invasion of France, Germany was conquered by the Soviets from the east and the other Allied powers from the west and surrendered within a year. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the closing months of the war. The victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.

Weapons

Five weapons you don't want to meet.

1. AK-47

The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known in the Soviet documentation as Avtomat Kalashnikova (Russian:Автомат Калашникова). It is also known as Kalashnikov, AK, or in Russian slang, Kalash.

Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year of World War II (1945). After the war in 1946, the AK-47 was presented for official military trials. In 1948, the fixed-stock version was introduced into active service with selected units of the Soviet Army. An early development of the design was the AKS (S—Skladnoy or "folding"), which was equipped with an underfolding metal shoulder stock. In 1949, the AK-47 was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces and used by the majority of the member states of the Warsaw Pact.

Even after six decades the model and its variants remain the most popular and widely used assault rifles in the world because of their substantial reliability under harsh conditions, low production costs compared to contemporary Western weapons, availability in virtually every geographic region and ease of use. The AK-47 has been manufactured in many countries and has seen service with armed forces as well as irregular forcesworldwide, and was the basis for developing many other types of individual and crew-served firearms. As of 2004, out of the estimated 500 million firearms worldwide, approximately 100 million belong to the Kalashnikov family, three-quarters of which are AK-47s.

2. HK-G36

The Heckler & Koch G36 is a 5.56×45mm assault rifle, designed in the early 1990s by Heckler & Koch (H&K) in Germany as a replacement for the heavier 7.62mm G3 battle rifle. It was accepted into service with theBundeswehr in 1995, replacing the G3. The G36 is gas-operated and feeds from a 30-round detachable box magazine or 100-round C-Mag drum magazine.

Work on a successor for the venerable G3 rifle had been ongoing in Germany since the second half of the 1970s. These efforts resulted in the innovative 4.73mm G11 assault rifle (developed jointly by a group of companies led by H&K), that used caseless ammunition (designed by the Dynamit Nobel company). It had been predicted that this weapon would eventually replace the G3, therefore further development of H&K's series of firearms chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge had been halted. Heckler & Koch, having no incentive to pursue a new 5.56mm weapon system, was content with the export-oriented HK33 and G41rifles. However, the G11 program came to an abrupt end when the Bundeswehr canceled its procurement due to defense budget cuts after the unification of East and West Germany and H&K was acquired in 1991 by British Aerospace's Royal Ordnance division (known today as BAE Systems).

Increasing interest in Germany for a modern service rifle chambered for the NATO-standard 5.56mm cartridge led H&K to offer the German armed forces the G41 rifle, which, too, was rejected. Design work was then initiated from the ground up on a modern 5.56mm assault rifle designated "Project 50" or HK50. The prototype was then trialed, where it was rated higher than the rival Austrian Steyr AUG system. The final version of the G36 was completed in 1994. Production of the G36 began in 1995.

3. Barret M95

The Barrett M95 is a bolt-action sniper rifle chambered in .50 BMG (12.7×99mm), and manufactured by Barrett Firearms Company.

The M95 is an improved version of the earlier Barrett M90. It is a bolt-action sniper rifle in a bullpup design. The major difference between the M95 and the M90 is that the pistol grip and trigger have been moved forward 1 inch (25 mm) for better magazine clearance. Also, the bolt handle has been redesigned and bent down and to the rear, the barrel chamber has been plated in chrome, and there are also some minor changes to the trigger and firing pin.

In 1999, the M95 won a military competition to become the new XM107. A small number were purchased by the U.S. Army for further testing, but ultimately, the M82 was chosen. The Barrett website also announces that M95 rifle is used for military and law enforcement applications in at least 15 other countries.

4. IMI Desert Eagle

The Desert Eagle is a large-framed gas-operated semi-automatic pistol designed by Magnum Research, Inc. (MRI) in the United States. Over the past 25 years, MRI has been responsible for the design and development of the Desert Eagle pistol. The design was refined and the actual pistols were manufactured by Israel Military Industries until 1995, when MRI shifted the manufacturing contract to Saco Defense in Saco, Maine. In 1998, MRI moved manufacturing back to IMI, which later reorganized under the name Israel Weapon Industries. Both Saco and IMI/IWI were strictly contractors: all of the intellectual property, including patents, copyrights and trademarks, are the property of Magnum Research. Since 2009, the Desert Eagle Pistol has been produced in the United States at MRI’s Pillager, MN facility. Kahr Arms acquired Magnum Research in the middle of 2010. The Desert Eagle has been featured in roughly 500 motion pictures and TV films, along with several video games, considerably increasing its popularity and boosting sales.

Magnum Research has marketed various versions of the short recoil Jericho 941 pistol under the Baby Eagle and Desert Eagle Pistol names; these have no functional relationship to the Desert Eagle and bear only a moderate cosmetic resemblance.

5. Compound Bows

A compound bow is a modern bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs.

The pulley/cam system grants the wielder a mechanical advantage, and so the limbs of a compound bow are much stiffer than those of a recurve bow or longbow. This rigidity makes the compound bow more energy-efficient than other bows, as less energy is dissipated in limb movement. The higher-rigidity, higher-technology construction also improves accuracy by reducing the bow's sensitivity to changes in temperature and humidity.

The pulley/cam system also confers a benefit called "let-off". As the string is drawn back, the pulleys rotate. The pulleys are eccentric rather than round, and so their effective radius changes as they rotate. By the time the bow is at full draw, the change in pulley radius has approximately doubled the wielder's mechanical advantage, and so less force is needed to hold at full draw. This "let-off" gives compound bows their characteristic draw-force curve: a quick rise to peak force and then diminishing to a much lower holding force. The exact shape of the curve is a function of the pulley geometry, which is a matter of buyer preference.

The compound bow was first developed in 1966 by Holless Wilbur Allen in Missouri, and a US patent was granted in 1969. The compound bow has become increasingly popular. In the United States, the compound is the dominant form of bow.