The changes in the world scene (greater mobility of people, improved communications, multicultural societies, a large number of people with different languages and cultures over a short period of time and in a small area) are also affecting the way the role of a translator/interpreter as an interlinguistic mediator is understood. This paper focuses on the transfer of written information: First of all, a brief introduction is given regarding the attempts at defining and demarcating translation for public services; secondly, the characteristics of a public-service translator are analyzed; and thirdly, some information is provided on the production of texts in Spain in the languages spoken by the foreign population that has arrived in the last few years.