DIMA Annual Report 2000-01

Output 2.2 Translating and interpreting services

Description

The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) provides accessible, quality, national interpreting and translating services between English and migrant languages, to individuals (migrants and others) and government and non-government service deliverers.

The output has three components - document translating, telephone interpreting and on-site interpreting.

Key results

• highest demand languages in 2000-01 included Arabic, Mandarin, Serbian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Persian, Bosnian, Croatian, Russian and Turkish. The languages in greatest demand have been similar for the last three years, although the order has varied slightly
  
  
• the TIS business plan implementation in 2000-01 included re-structuring time blocks for interpreting user charges and progressive introduction of full cost-recovery charges for commercial agencies. The partial cost-recovery document translation service was discontinued on 1 March 2001. The fee-free translation service of personal documents for newly-arrived migrants and refugees remains unchanged and continues to be provided. The accounts receivable function was consolidated to a single site
  
  
• the number of documents translated decreased, following the closure of the partial-cost-recovery document translation service in March 2001. 15,824 documents were translated, compared with a forecast of 20,000. Of the 15,824 documents translated, 5,980 were fee-free and 9,844 were partial cost recovery
  
  
• the number of telephone calls increased, reflecting greater use of cost-effective telephone interpreting services. 3.7 million minutes of interpreted conversation (representing 264,573 telephone calls) were completed, compared with a forecast of 2.9 million minutes and 220,000 telephone interpreting calls. Of the 264,573 calls, 71,000 were fee-free and 193,573 were partial cost recovery activities
  
  
• on-site interpreting services increased slightly. 120,000 on-site hours of interpreted conversation (represented by 78,481 on-site interpreting visits) were delivered, compared with a forecast of 106,000 on-site hours and 75,000 on-site visits. Of the 78,481 on-site visits, 24,000 were fee-free and 54,481 were partial cost recovery
  
  
• during the Olympic and Paralympic Games period (15 August to 4 November 2000), TIS southern call centre staff received and processed all telephone interpreting calls:
  
  
  • overflowing from the SOCOG Multi-lingual Switch Board (MLSB)
    
    
  • outside of the hours of operation of the SOCOG MLSB (operating between 0700 and 2300 hours daily)
    
    
  • in languages not available through the SOCOG MLSB
    
    
• TIS southern call centre staff were trained on SOCOG telephone answering and other requirements and arrangements were put in place to ensure adequate reporting was provided on a regular basis to SOCOG. SOCOG acknowledged the success of these arrangements.

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