Court Translators Protesting Contract Change
A dispute over the privatisation of court translation services has seen interpreters protesting outside the Ministry of Justice and Commons.
The Professional Interpreters Alliance (PIA) said 60% of its members have chosen to boycott court work over poorer pay and conditions.
They also said the incompetent interpreters are now being used and courts should return to using registered freelancers instead of going via a single agency.
The Ministry of Justice have claimed the new system is more efficient.
PIA director and Dutch interpreter Madeleine Lee told the BBC: "We're hearing reports of people seeing not just one terrified face sitting in the dock but the defendant and the interpreter next to them looking terrified and mute and not doing what an interpreter is supposed to do which is actually talk."
