The Leeds-headquartered international language services company set to take over from Capita to provide courtroom interpreting in October is looking to hire more than 3,500 language experts.

Thebigword today announced that it has signed a contract worth up to £120m to provide face-to-face and telephone interpreting and translations to the Ministry of Justice from 31 October.

The business employs more than 550 people across 11 offices and says it already has 8,000 linguists.

Now that the contract has been signed, thebigword says it will recruit more than 100 new support staff at its Leeds office and more than 3,500 language experts.

Thebigword chief executive Larry Gould said (pictured): ‘The MoJ decided to work with us because we have the experience, infrastructure and word-class technology.

‘We already work with a range of large-scale public sector organisations around the world and they know they can trust us to deliver. This is a fantastic deal for thebigword and further cements our position as the largest interpreting services provider in Europe.’

More than four years after the controversial outsourcing of courtroom interpreting to a single contractor, new arrangements will replace Capita Translation and Interpreting’s contract, which expires on 30 October. 

The contract for non-spoken language services has reportedly been offered to Cambridge firm Clarion Interpreting Limited.

The contract for independent quality assurance has reportedly been offered to The Language Shop, a business originally set up by the London Borough of Newham.

Providing further details about its deal, thebigword says it will deliver ‘dedicated online portals that seamlessly and instantly connect linguists with clients needing language support’.

The contract also requires thebigword to develop a trainee scheme in conjunction with the independent quality assurance supplier.

Gould said thebigword will continue to push for contracts similar to its MoJ contract in the private and public sectors.

‘We are extremely proud of the work we do breaking down language bariers around the world everyday and are now looking forward to helping deliver justice in the UK,’ he added.

‘It’s also fantastic to be welcoming thousands more skilled linguists to thebigword family.’