The £60 million question

Interpreters

The £60 million question

Questions are finally being asked in parliament about the outsourcing of language interpreting in the justice sector to a single firm, Applied Language Solutions (Eyes passim).

As the Eye went to press, Lib Dem MP John Lech was preparing to question the contract in a late evening adjournment debate.

In a letter to former home secretary Alan Johnson, who wrote to the ministry on behalf of worried interpreters, justice secretary Kenneth Clarke described the selection of ALS as “robust and rigorous”. But interpreters continue to question whether a firm so tiny it took advantage of the small companies exemption to publish abbreviated accounts last year, is capable of handling a £60m national contract.

Private Eye, issue number 1299, page 31, 14th-27th October 2011.