Linguist Lounge

Response to Ministry of Justice’s published full year statistics on the use of languages services in courts and tribunals

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Category: Analysis and Comment

Published on Thursday, 23 May 2013 18:00

Written by Kasia Beresford

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published its third statistical bulletin (Bulletin 3) relating to the use of language services in courts and tribunals on the 28^th March 2013. It covers the first full year of implementation of the Framework Agreement (FWA) with Capita Translation & Interpreting. It is in a similar format to the previous two bulletins even though the adequacy of this approach has been questioned as it does not present a full picture of the language services required (paragraph 141 Justice Committee report 6/2/13) and contains no data about the Tiers of interpreters used or any form of quality indicator (as recommended in paragraph 177 Justice committee report 6/2/13).

The report may have been prepared by a statistician, but it is in no way impartial and its presentation is skewed towards supporting the status quo.

This response presents key data from the published statistical tables summarised into in a simple format, which allows a numerate reader to gain an overview of the performance and trend over the year that has been obscured by the official presentation.

Table 1 shows the total requests for language services by month, subdivided into those where the FWA delivered (Bulletin 3 category Fulfilled + category Customer did not attend), those where it failed to deliver (Bulletin 3 category Not fulfilled by supplier + category Supplier did not attend) and cancellations (Bulletin 3 category Cancelled by customer). Over the year Capita delivered (leaving aside all questions of quality and what was actually delivered) in only 80% of cases. It failed to deliver 9% of the time and 11% falls into the controversial category of Cancellations.

The trend over the year is clear:

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Government won’t investigate Du interpreter fiasco

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Category: News

Published on Tuesday, 21 May 2013 14:45

Written by Northampton Chronicle & Echo

The Government has said it will not investigate a firm which failed to send a Mandarin interpreter for a court appearance of murder suspect, Anxiang Du.

Capita, the firm contracted by the Ministry of Justice to provide foreign interpreters in courts, was branded a “disgrace” by a High Court Judge last week after Du’s latest court appearance had to be adjourned.

Du, aged 54, was due to enter pleas for charges of murdering Jifeng Ding, his wife Helen, and their two children Xing, aged 18, and Alice, aged 12.

During the plea and case management hearing at Nottingham Crown Court, at which Anxiang Du was present, the High Court Judge explained he had asked for an interpreter to be booked.

However, he said the firm indicated it was not worth sending one as they “would not make enough money” from the hearing.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We have worked with Capita to make dramatic improvements in the interpreter service, saving taxpayers £15 million last 
year. These kinds of issues are now rare.”

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Interpreters and legal aid consultation

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Category: Analysis and Comment

Published on Monday, 20 May 2013 20:57

Written by Matthew Scott

Criminal barristers and solicitors are now about to be subjected to the same MoJ treatment as interpreters.  Under a "consultation" exercise Mr Grayling's plan is to close down 3/4 of solicitors' firms and remove the right of suspects or defendants to choose their solicitors. It is quite outrageous, and all to save a tiny amount.  If you care, please sign the save uk justice petition  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48628 (tinyurl.com/itsmychoice) & see "Is Mr Grayling’s Legal Aid Consultation Genuine Or A Sham? Ask An Interpreter" at http://barristerblogger.com/?p=213

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Court interpreters reject new contract deal

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Category: News

Published on Monday, 20 May 2013 09:32

Written by Catherine Baksi, Law Society Gazette

Courts are being disrupted on a ‘daily basis’ as interpreters continue to boycott the private sector contract for translation services, despite a peace move by the Ministry of Justice, an interpreters group claimed this week.

The ministry last month revealed that it would foot the bill for a 22% rise in payments made to court interpreters in a bid to attract more to work under a controversial contract with Capita that has been blamed for widespread disruption over the past 15 months.

Professional Interpreters for Justice, an umbrella group of interpreters’ organisations that oppose the contract, said their members have rejected the new deal and will still not work for the company.

The group wants to see the contract, which has been criticised by two high-profile parliamentary committees and the National Audit Office, scrapped.

The group claims that ‘incidences of interpreter no-shows and poor-quality interpreting’ are disrupting courts on a ‘daily basis’.

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FOI request on contract amendments to FWA with Capita

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Category: The Letters Page

Published on Sunday, 19 May 2013 19:48

Written by Yelena McCafferty

Data Access and Compliance Unit
Information & Communications Directorate
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

Via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

Please provide copies of all contractual documents drawn up as a result of the revision of the Framework Agreement with Capita Translation and Interpreting, coming into effect on 1^st May 2013, as announced by Helen Grant MP on 25^th April 2013 in the House of Commons:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130425/wmstext/130425m0001.htm#130425m0001.htm_spmin10.

Please let me have the information requested above in the electronic form.

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