Tuesday 6 March 2012

PQs - 6th March 2012


6 Mar 2012
Translation Services
Justice

Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) whether (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department received reports on the standard of work and suitability of Applied Language Solutions before the awarding of the contract for translation services;
(2) what penalties or sanctions the (a) Framework Agreement and (b) contract with Applied Language Solutions (ALS) contains for non-compliance with (i) the key performance indicators, (ii) the Framework Agreement and (iii) the contract; for what reasons these penalties or sanctions can be imposed; and whether any such penalties or sanctions have been imposed on ALS.

Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation), Justice; Reigate, Conservative)
Ministers do not routinely receive reports on the suitability and standard of work of any bidders engaged in an active procurement exercise. This remained the case with ALS.
There are a number of remedies available to the Ministry of Justice under the contract including:
The application of service credits based upon delivery of services against agreed Key performance Indicators.
Provision to charge any cost differential where we are required to source from an alternative party as a result of default.
These remedies will be used where there is a breach of contract and it is believed that it will bring benefit to the MOJ while not causing a substantial detrimental impact upon the future performance and delivery of the contract.





6 Mar 2012
Translation Services
Justice

Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) what steps he has taken to ensure that translation services provided by Applied Language Solutions to courts are being delivered to a satisfactory standard;
(2) pursuant to the answer of 23 February 2012, Official Report, columns 953-4W, on translation service, what measures are contained in the action plan agreed between his Department and Applied Language Solutions (ALS); if he will assess the effectiveness of such measures in dealing with the problems set out in his Answer; and whether he has received complaints concerning (a) the quality of translation services and (b) the service provided by ALS since his answer;
(3) pursuant to the answer of 28 February 2012, Official Report, columns 189-91W, on translation services, how many of the key performance indicators listed in his Department's equality impact assessment are being met by Applied Language Solutions.

Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation), Justice; Reigate, Conservative)
There have been an unacceptable number of difficulties in the first few weeks of this contract. In view of this, I have required immediate action to address the issues encountered. My officials receive regular management information, and attend regular meetings with Applied Language Solutions (ALS) to ensure an appropriate level of service to the justice sector. I and my ministerial colleagues are receiving regular reports and continue to monitor the situation.
ALS has taken the following steps to address the issues experienced in the initial period of operation of the framework:
An increase to the level of pay and travel allowances to interpreters. The introduction of block booking arrangements focused on problematic languages plans to directly recruit interpreters where there is clear ongoing demand.
Arranging additional interpreter assessment centres.
Recruitment of additional call handlers, booking administrators and linguist relationship managers.
Introduction of a new administrative team, purely with the function of issuing customer updates.
Secondment of a process management specialist, a management information specialist and an outbound calling team with the brief of further developing the supply of interpreters.
Improvements to the automated booking system.
We are starting to see improvements in performance but the contractor is still falling short of meeting a proportion of the key performance indicators.





6 Mar 2012
Applied Language Solutions
Justice

Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether his Department is aware of any instances where (a) interpreters are being included on lists of translators used by Applied Language Solutions (ALS) without the consent of the interpreters concerned and (b) ALS is using interpreters without first checking their qualifications and conducting an assessment; and what steps his Department is taking to (i) investigate and (ii) end these breaches of (A) the Framework Agreement and (B) the contract with ALS.

Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation), Justice; Reigate, Conservative)
Interpreters must express an interest in providing services under the framework, and have gone through the assessment process, before being included on the list of those available for work.
The contractor is obliged to ensure that the interpreters they use have appropriate qualifications, skills, experience and are appropriately vetted. Should any concerns or complaints arise about the quality, qualifications or background of individual interpreters there is a robust complaints mechanism.




6 Mar 2012

Applied Language Solutions
Justice

Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of assignments have been (a) fulfilled, (b) delivered on time, (c) not fulfilled by Applied Language Solutions but made under the old arrangements and (d) not delivered on time.

Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation), Justice; Reigate, Conservative)
As part of their contractual obligations under the framework the contractor is required to provide a range of information about the performance of the contract. The Ministry will consider what information it can usefully publish in due course.

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