David Ruffley

MERSEYSIDE police are paying interpretors £253,000 a year to help deal with foreign offenders.

Although this is a drop from £300,000 the previous year, translation costs have risen by 44% since 2003, according to figures released under the freedom of information act.

Shadow police minister David Ruffley said: 'These figures show that we are importing more foreign criminals.

'Police budgets are being hit and the money could be better spent on more frontline policing of our streets.'

A SHARP rise in the number of foreign people arrested in the Westcountry has led to the police bill for interpreters more than doubling in just five years.

Devon and Cornwall Police now spend almost £290,000 a year on translation services which the Tories claim is eating into budgets for front-line services.

The Government has begun forcing immigrants to pay an impact levy to help public services deal with the extra costs of widespread migration.

The annual influx of migrant workers into the Westcountry increased by 260 per cent between 2002 and 2008.

POLICE spent a record Pounds 22.1million on interpreters last year as the number of foreign offenders soared, it emerged yesterday.

Forces are having to hire agency staff to read immigrant law-breakers their rights and translate for officers questioning them.

Figures show spending mushroomed 63 per cent from Pounds 13.5million in 2003, with even rural forces dealing with 70 languages.

POLICE spending on interpreters has rocketed by more than 60 per cent to £22million a year, following the recent influx of migrants.

Some forces have seen their translation bill soar by more than 400 per cent, as regions previously untouched by mass migration absorb large numbers of arrivals from Eastern Europe.

The Conservatives said this was draining taxpayers' cash from priority areas such as fighting crime.

Tory police spokesman David Ruffley , who unearthed details of the spending surge, said: 'These figures suggest we are importing more foreign criminals.

POLICE forces are having to spend more than pounds 22 million a year on hiring interpreters for foreign criminals, new figures show.

The overall cost has risen by two thirds in the past five years, but for some individual forces the amount paid to translators has increased by 400 per cent.

David Ruffley , the shadow police minister, said the cost of translators was unacceptable and was putting a strain on police budgets.

A SHARP rise in the number of foreign people arrested in the Westcountry has led to the police bill for interpreters more than doubling in just five years.

Devon and Cornwall Police now spend almost £290,000 a year on translation services which the Tories claim is eating into budgets for front-line services.

The Government has begun forcing immigrants to pay an impact levy to help public services deal with the extra costs of widespread migration.

The annual influx of migrant workers into the Westcountry increased by 260 per cent between 2002 and 2008.

David Ruffley MP, Shadow Minister for Police Reform, and PC Jim Kidd are visiting St Benedict's School, Bury St Edmunds on Friday, 27 February 2009.

They will be advising children on crime prevention and personal safety and promoting Suffolk Constabulary's PROTECT IT, REGISTER IT campaign which encourages everyone to register their property on the immobilise.com website. Mr Paul Rossi, Headteacher of St Benedict's, has kindly arranged a special meeting of the School Council to meet Mr Ruffley and PC Kidd.

David Ruffley is continuing to keep up the pressure on the Highways Agency to resolve the subsidence on the A14 at Rougham following the recent update he received.

David has been informed by the Highways Agency that the subsidence problem on the A14 at Rougham lies with a drainage crossing trench, which is between 2.5 and 3.0 metres below carriageway level. There appears to be a 100-150mm deep void in the failing area.

David Ruffley is visiting Radio West Suffolk at their studio in West Suffolk Hospital on Friday, 6 February.

Radio West Suffolk is a volunteer-run radio station which broadcasts to patients at West Suffolk Hospital as well as locally on 1350AM and worldwide on the internet.

David will record an interview with Julie MacLeod, station manager, roving reporter and one of their regular presenters. The interview will be broadcast during Julie's 'What's Going On?' programme on Wednesday 11 February at 6.00pm.

VIOLENT attacks by boozed-up teenage girls are soaring - with 63 offences committed every day, official figures revealed last night.

The number of crimes by females under 18 has more than TRIPLED in the past seven years.

For the first time, assault is now the most common reason for girls being arrested. And yobbish behaviour by teenage boys is FALLING.

The astonishing change in teenage louts is revealed in figures obtained by the Youth Justice Board.