No Portuguese interpreter

http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/2013/07/29/portugese-interpreter-needed-before-burglar-is-sentenced-113046-33668238/ 
29 July 2013

Portuguese interpreter needed before burglar is sentenced

HAREFIELD: A serial burglar who was due to be sentenced last week must wait to hear his fate.

Paulo Santos, 45, of Dovedale Close, Harefield, had admitted trespass and burglary charges, in relation to break-ins at houses, garages and offices in Harefield, Northwood and Rickmansworth.

He was convicted of stealing laptops and gardening equipment.

The sentencing, which was set for Isleworth Crown Court on Friday last week, was adjourned because details of all the charges were not available, and because a Portuguese interpreter was required.

Santos was given bail on condition he observes a night-time curfew.

PQs: 18 July 2013

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-07-18a.159451.h 

18 July 2013
Translation Services 
Justice

Valerie Vaz (Walsall South, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) how much his Department saved through the contract for interpreters and translation services in (a) February 2012 and (b) May 2013; 
(2) what the cost to his Department was of the contract for interpreters and translation services in (a) February 2012 and (b) May 2013. 

Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald, Conservative) 
The overall annual savings under the contract during 2012-13 are estimated to be in excess of £15 million.
I can confirm that the monthly expenditure under the Capita TI Language Services contract was £0.11 million for February 2012 and £1.2 million for May 2013.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-07-18a.158470.h

18 July 2013

Capita

Justice

Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department currently spends on contracts with Capita; and how much was spent in each year since 2008.

Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam, Conservative)

The Ministry of Justice has spent the following amounts on contracts with Capita since the financial year 2008-09.

There is a significant increase in expenditure in the financial year 2011-12 due to the transition by the MOJ onto the Government Procurement Service CIPHER Framework for specialist contractors and interim managers and the commencement of the MOJ contract under the Framework for Language Services.

Total departmental spend
Financial year	Net amount (£)
2008-09	2,484,728.62
2009-10	4,568,308.60
2010-11	3,936,244.42
2011-12	24,551,942.29
2012-13	40,671,774.05

Legal Aid debate - 11 July 2013

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2013-07-11a.444.1 

Legal Aid — Motion to Take Note 
11 July 2013

[…] "If the Government want to see the kind of chaos that price-competitive tendering brings to justice, they need only look at the issue of interpreters. Barristers wait for days in court for Serco, which now deals with the interpreter system, to deliver an interpreter. I have heard of young barristers storing multilingual phrases in their phones so that they can explain to their clients that the interpreter has not turned up. Also, the defendant is often not produced by Serco. The waste in the criminal justice system is often about large companies bidding for and securing a contract at prices on which they cannot deliver. We then end up with no cost savings at all." […]

Defendant could not understand the interpreter

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/tamil-protesters-appear-court-after-4979450 
10 Jul 2013

[...] "An eighth man admitted throwing a stone at a passing car outside the stadium, while a ninth man accused of common assault was unable to submit a plea because he could not understand the Tamil interpreter provided by the court – his case was adjourned until July 23." [...]

PQ - 9 July 2013

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-07-09b.168.10 

9 July 2013
Crown Prosecution Service (Procurement/Outsourcing) 
Oral Answers to Questions — Attorney-General 

Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent, Labour) 
The Crown Prosecution Service has a pilot contract for interpreters at four witness care units, but it has been dogged by delay. What is going to happen now at witness care units across the country? 

Dominic Grieve (Attorney General; Beaconsfield, Conservative) 
The use that the CPS makes of those services is actually fairly limited. The information that I have does not suggest that the difficulties experienced by the service more generally have caused the CPS a problem.

IAPTI’s tribute to NRPSI interpreters

http://www.iapti.org/conferenceUK/blog/ 

IAPTI’s tribute to NRPSI interpreters 
The IAPTI Board has decided to hold its first international conference in London, UK. 
Why the UK? We decided to pay tribute to the group of courageous interpreters who, against all tides, have been resisting the agreement between the UK’s Ministry of Justice and Capita Translation and Interpreting (formerly known as Applied Language Solutions), a company paying sub-standard rates for language professionals working as interpreters for the police and the courts. 
This agreement was one of the most shameful insults to our profession: the Ministry of Justice decided to spoil a full-fledged system of individual professional court interpreters and cut down on costs by granting a legal monopoly on the provision of these services to Capita. This company, in turn, in¬tended to cut on interpreters’ rates by more than half. 
Interpreters affected by this measure have been resisting and refusing to sell their services for peanuts since 2010. Some of them have even left the profession, which is extremely sad. But these brave actions have served to place interpreters and their work in the spotlight. They are fighting for their profession and we have been supporting them from the beginning. 
This is not an easy moment for UK interpreters, but we will be there to support them. Will you join us? This first IAPTI international conference will feature exciting presentations on interesting topics for translators and interpreters such as professional marketing, branding, language, ethics, new trends in social media, and much more. All of this will be made in tribute to the UK interpreters. 
Please note: as part of IAPTI’s tribute to UK interpreters, NRPSI members are paying a special fee, the same as IAPTI’s members. 

More information here: http://www.iapti.org/conferenceUK/