New court interpreting system continues to fail nationwide
The new court interpreting service outsourced to Capita’s Applied Language Solutions continues hitting news publications all over the country.
On Friday, June 29th, a Wiltshire newspaper reports that a Polish national was remanded in custody over the weekend until an interpreter could be found.
On the same day the Huddersfield Daily Examiner mentions a district judge had to adjourn a teenager’s case to enable a Polish interpreter to attend.
It appears some courts have to resort to telephone links with Polish interpreters as reported by a paper in Cornwall on the same Friday in a case of a lorry driver accused of careless driving.
Where are all of these interpreters ALS claims to have on their books? In March ALS claimed they had 2,000 experienced and qualified linguists actively working within the system. In the same month ALS/Capita comment they have 1,800 linguists on their books. In May we learn that nearly 3,000 linguists were working for ALS. These look like random figures to me. At the end of the day, ALS was already found stealing interpreter details and registering them without their consent so I can well believe ALS are able to say anything they like.
I also heard from a colleague that ALS refuses to register any new interpreters to work on any other assignments, e.g. NHS, local government, unless they agree to be put on the LIT (MOJ) Register. A good way to boost numbers for a window-dressing exercise, don’t you agree?
