Of course most police forces and so on will not have speakers available, but the comment said "British intelligence". Every intelligence agency has translators

Of course most police forces and so on will not have speakers available, but the comment said "British intelligence". Every intelligence agency has translators for all major languages, and have for decades (Arabic was an important language in the Cold War almost from the start). And they have translators for minor languages on tap - I bet they could find a Basque, Lapp, or Chukchi speaker if they needed one quicker than most universities.