What does an Interpreter cost?

As there are nine freelance Interpreters in SID, the fees will vary depending on the individual and the type of assignment.

A typical fee is likely to be from £120 upwards for an assignment that falls within a half day and from £260 upwards for a full day.

Travel costs, such as a train fare, mileage or car parking are usually added in addition to the fee but in some cases, may be included.

Each assignment is assessed independently. When you send a request in, the available Interpreters will answer you with their fee to allow you to decide whether you want to accept the booking.

How do I know if an Interpreter is registered and qualified?

We all adhere to the NRCPD’s Code of Conduct for Communication Professionals.

NRCPD exists to protect the public by regulating communication and language professionals who work with Deaf and deafblind people.

They hold Registers of Interpreters for deafblind people, lipspeakers, notetakers, Sign Language interpreters, Sign Language translators and speech to text reporters.

NRCPD registration is vital as it assures you a level of competence, accountability and insurance.

A fully qualified Interpreter is called an RSLI – Registered Sign Language Interpreter and will carry a yellow badge, like the one below.

Even if you don’t book through us, please do expect Interpreters to be registered with NRCPD and ask to see their badge!

Why might I need more than one Interpreter for my booking?

As a guide for booking 1 or 2 BSL/English interpreters, there are a number of factors to consider.

Interpreting research shows that after about 20-25 minutes of constant interpreting mistakes start to appear.

This is due to the interpreter working between 2 languages at the same time, with various complex cultural and linguistic challenges.

Due to this, most interpreting over an hour requires 2 interpreters to alternate.

The second interpreter will still be working when not actually interpreting as they will be watching out for any mis-understandings or other factors impacting the interpretation. 

Further to this, though, the setting is an important factor in how many interpreters are required.

Different settings have different impacts on how challenging the interpreting process is.

These factors could include the number of people involved in the event, the intensity of the information, acoustics, accents, scheduled breaks and much more. 

A qualified interpreter should judge the factors they have information on, ask for more information if required and learn from their previous experience of whether they need a co-worker or not.

We don’t always get it spot on as some factors can’t be predicted, but we try our best to advise people booking our services. 

The downsides to only booking 1 interpreter when 2 are required include:

An interpretation that declines in quality over time – mistakes becoming more common and also physical harm to the interpreter (rsi, problems with back, shoulders, etc).

Due to the latter issue, we reserve the right to withdraw from a booking if the correct number of interpreters are not booked. 

GDPR Privacy Policy for SID.

All the interpreters at SID take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to make a decision about suitability of interpreter, and carry out the booking effectively.

We will not pass on your information to any other person outside of SID, unless legally required to do so.

We do not hold information about you on a database.

SID interpreters receive an email with your request and all information held by us will be deleted.

All the SID Interpreters have an individual work email address that is password protected so it cannot be accessed by a third party.