The Agency
Prism Linguistics has run translation and interpreting from Warrington since 2013. One project manager per job, a second linguist on every translation, and a fixed quote within one working hour.
Prism Linguistics is a UK translation agency, trading since 2013 from a head office in Warrington. We manage translation and interpreting in 300+ languages for NHS trusts, HMCTS, police forces, local authorities and law firms, drawing on a network of 20,000+ vetted linguists, with a second linguist reviewing every translation.
This page is about the company rather than the price list: how a job actually runs, what an ongoing account looks like, and the questions we'd suggest you put to any agency you're comparing, ourselves included.
Search for a translation agency and you'll find two kinds of result. Platforms that pass your document to whoever in a database bids fastest, and companies that take responsibility for the work. We're the second kind, and the difference shows up the first time something needs a decision: an illegible stamp on a scan, a deadline that moves, a court listing brought forward.
The people who answer our phone are project managers, not a sales layer. They choose the linguist, chase the deadline and stay with your job until it's delivered. Our client list runs from NHS trusts, HM Courts & Tribunals Service, police forces and local authorities to UK law firms, Duncan Lewis Solicitors among them, and businesses trading abroad. There's more on who instructs us on the our clients page, and the longer company story is on the about page.
Every assignment follows the same shape. A project manager takes your enquiry and replies with a fixed quote within one working hour during office hours. They pick the translator from a network of more than 20,000 vetted linguists, matching the language pair and the subject. A shareholder agreement goes to someone who has translated shareholder agreements before, not merely someone who speaks the language.
The translator is always a native speaker of the target language. When they finish, a second linguist reads the translation against the source before anything leaves us. Two pairs of eyes on every job, included in the price rather than sold as an extra.
Where a UK authority needs to rely on the document, we certify it. Our certified translation work is accepted by the Home Office, UKVI, HM Courts & Tribunals Service, HM Passport Office and UK universities, and for documents heading abroad we prepare notarisation-ready certified translations for your notary. If it's the work itself you're comparing rather than the company, the translation services page lists what we translate. A certified Polish translation for a UKVI application and a Romanian court bundle are a fairly typical week.
One-off clients get a quote, a delivery date and an invoice. Organisations that instruct us regularly get a little more structure, because that's what their finance and compliance teams need.
Purchase orders are referenced on every invoice. Billing runs per assignment, monthly, or to a PO, and we accept Legal Aid Agency rates for eligible legal work and NHS framework rates for trust bookings. The audit trail public bodies ask for (PO references, named jobs, dates, job numbers) is kept as routine rather than assembled on request.
You also keep the same account contact. Law firms sending a steady stream of disclosure bundles tell us this is most of the value of an agency: one person who already knows the account, the formats and the deadlines, so nothing gets explained twice. The same goes for NHS teams booking translation alongside interpreting. How we work with each is on the legal sector and healthcare sector pages.
Put these to any agency you're considering, including us. The answers separate companies that manage translation from companies that resell it.
You want a native speaker of the target language with experience in your subject, and you are entitled to ask how the agency checks that. Vague answers here usually mean the job goes to whoever is cheapest and available on the day.
Translators rarely catch their own slips; an independent reviewer does. Ask whether a second linguist reads the translation against the source before delivery, and whether that review is in the base price or sold separately.
Court papers, medical records and immigration files pass through agencies every day. Ask whether handling is UK GDPR compliant, who actually sees the file, and whether the agency will sign your non-disclosure agreement. The answer should arrive without hesitation.
Every agency gets a query eventually. What matters is the route: a named contact who knows the job, a re-check against the source, and a correction where one is needed. If the answer is a support ticket queue, keep looking.
Clients rarely need written translation alone. The solicitor who sends us a witness statement in the morning often needs an interpreter at a tribunal that same week, so it helps that we're a language agency covering both sides of the work: documents in writing, and interpreting in person, by telephone or by video, across the same 300+ languages. Telephone interpreting runs 24/7.
One account and one invoice cover both. For a sense of how a single language is handled end to end, spoken and written, our Arabic translation page is a reasonable place to start.
People search for a translation agency near me, and the honest answer is that for written work it barely matters where the agency sits. Documents travel by email. Ours arrive from, and go back to, every part of the UK, and certified hard copies are posted by tracked Royal Mail wherever they're needed. We work from Warrington and deliver nationwide.
Geography does matter for face-to-face interpreting, where we allocate linguists local to the venue. If you'd rather browse by city, we keep local pages: see our translation agency in Manchester and translation agency in Birmingham pages, or the full locations index.
Most agencies, us included, price written work per source word. As a guide from our pricing page: standard business content runs £0.09 to £0.14 per word, legal, medical and certified work £0.12 to £0.18, and rare languages, specialist technical content or same-day turnaround £0.15 to £0.22 and up. Short standard certificates are simpler, at £35 to £60 per page, certified.
Standard certified documents are typically delivered in 24 to 48 hours, with urgent and same-day options when the deadline is real. We accept Legal Aid Agency rates for eligible matters and NHS framework rates for trust work.
One comparison tip. When you line up quotes from different agencies, check whether the second-linguist review is included in the rate. A cheaper per-word price that later adds a "proofreading" line is not actually cheaper.
A large share of what any agency handles is sensitive: court evidence, patient records, immigration files. Our handling is UK GDPR compliant, documents are shared only with the linguists working on the job, and we'll sign a non-disclosure agreement where your organisation requires one. Ask us the confidentiality question from the checklist above; we rather enjoy answering it.
This page is about how the agency operates. For the written work itself, start at translation services; for business paperwork specifically, document translation covers contracts, records and reports in more depth.
Send the document, tell us the deadline, and a project manager replies with a fixed quote within one working hour during office hours.