4 May 2016 by Owen Bowcott
Thousands of court cases
adjourned due to failures in interpreting services
More than
2,600 court cases have been adjourned over the past five years because of
failures in the interpreting service, according to figures released by the
Ministry of Justice.
The
extent of the problem was confirmed as doubts emerged about the viability of
the troubled contract for interpreting services after the outsourcing firm Capita
declined to bid for its renewal in October.
A war
crimes trial at the Old Bailey collapsed last year and has had to be
rescheduled because of problems over the quality of interpreting offered to the
defendant, a Nepalese army officer.
The figures for the number of cases rescheduled since 2011,
when the new contract paying lower rates came into effect, have been provided
by the justice minister Lord Faulks.
In the
magistrates courts, 2,524 trials have had to be adjourned because of the lack
of an interpreter over the past five years. In the crown court, where costs are
far greater, 137 trials have had to be adjourned because of interpreter
difficulties. The cumulative expense of the adjournments was not recorded.
Commenting
on the failures, the Liberal Democrats’ justice spokesman, Lord Marks QC, said:
“It goes without saying that every time an interpreter fails to turn up, either
injustice is done, because the case goes on without one, or the case has to be
adjourned, leading to delays and a waste of everyone’s time and costs.
“Even with improvement against targets, the
number of court cases adjourned owing to the lack of interpreters has remained
stubbornly high. As one judge put it, the only just target is 100% attendance.
With the next contract the government must ensure effective and efficient
attendance of high-quality interpreters at court to enable justice to be
delivered.”
Capita,
which has held the contract to provide interpreters in England and Wales for
the past four years, has been heavily criticised in the past.
Last year
it was ordered to pay £16,000 by the most senior judge
in the family courts for its “lamentable” failure to provide interpreters seven
times in the course of a single adoption case. In 2013, the justice select
committee described the manner in which the court interpreting service was
privatised as shambolic.
Asked why
it had decided not to bid for the main contract after being shortlisted, a
Capita spokesperson said: “We took the decision to bid solely for Lot 2 [the
more predictable ‘written translation and transcription’ service]. It would be
inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
Geoffrey
Buckingham, an executive member of the European Legal Interpreters and
Translators Association, said: “The available pool of interpreters is already
limited, and the word is that many now have enough experience to move on to
better-paid work. If borne out, then quality will continue to fall.
“The MoJ
has not learned any lessons. The team names have changed, but the process is so
flawed that one of those shortlisted in December has walked away. Capita
Translation and Interpreting recently wrote to their interpreters saying they
had taken the ‘strategic decision’ to withdraw from the procurement [process].”
Following
Capita’s withdrawal, the two remaining bidders for the main contract are the
Leeds-based translation company thebigword and the US firm TransPerfect.
Earlier this week, thebigword won a £15m contract to provide telephone and
face-to-face interpreting and translation services to UK central government
organisations.
A
Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We are absolutely committed to improving
performance and ensuring the highest standard of language services for those
who need them.
“Our
latest figures show a 98% success rate in 2015 – the highest since the
interpreting contract began – with complaints about the service at a record
low, down 30% on last year. Since this contract was introduced, we have also
spent £38m less on language service fees.”
Interpreters
are self-employed and under no obligation to accept job requests. A boycott by
interpreters three years ago, in protest at low pay rates, failed to persuade
the government to abandon the contract.
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