MoJ Framework

Language Services Framework Agreement

http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View%20Notice.aspx?site=1000&lang=en&noticeid=264052&fs=true

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0tXqQzbT728amlmRjAzYnlESDA

Daily Telegraph’s correction

Thanks to a colleague's complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, the Daily Telegraph has published a correction today on Page 2.

 

 

http://www.pcc.org.uk/advanced_search.html?keywords=interpreters&page=1&num=10&publication=x&decision=x&image.x=0&image.y=0

 

PQ - 12th September 2011

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-09-12b.71011.h

12 Sep 2011

Interpreters: Training

Justice

Graeme Morrice (Livingston, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department is taking to ensure that interpreters employed in the criminal justice system have professional qualifications.

Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation), Justice; Reigate, Conservative)

As I announced in a written ministerial statement I made to the House on 15 September 2010, Hansard, columns 46-47WS, we are reforming the delivery of interpretation and translation services across the justice sector. This will primarily affect England and Wales.

A framework agreement with a single supplier was signed by the Ministry of Justice on 24 August 2011. This document includes clear quality standards specifying the qualifications and experience required for interpreters to work in the justice sector.

Unite campaign backs public service interpreting

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/unite-campaign-backs-public-service-interpreting
Thursday 08 September 2011 by Catherine Baksi

Unite campaign backs public service interpreting

Trade union Unite is to launch a campaign to support public service interpreting and ensure that properly trained translators are used by criminal justice agencies.

The campaign, Speak Up, Speak Out, follows the decision by the Ministry of Justice in July to contract with a single commercial agency, Applied Language Solutions, to provide translation and interpretation services to criminal justice agencies, dispensing with the requirement for registration with the Register of Public Service Interpreters and its sign language equivalent.

To date, public bodies such as the courts and police have contacted interpreters directly using the national register, which only lists qualified and security-vetted professionals.

Interpreting unions including NUPIT, the translators and interpreters branch of Unite, fear the government’s new arrangements will reduce the quality of services and harm the interests of those engaging with the criminal justice system.

Their campaign will seek to persuade the government to retain the national register and ensure a properly regulated public interpreting service.

An MoJ spokesman said: ‘We currently spend in the region of £60m a year on interpretation and translation services. This new framework will substantially cut that bill, by reducing inefficiencies, while still ensuring high quality interpreters and translators are available to those in need.’

Applied Language Solutions has previously pointed out that all work is done by appropriately qualified interpreters.

West Midlands Police to cut £750k from budget for translators

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2011/09/08/west-midlands-police-to-cut-750k-from-budget-for-translators-65233-29383853/#ixzz1YPQpyo1E
Sep 8 2011

West Midlands Police to cut £750k from budget for translators

West Midlands Police is to cut 40 per cent off the £1.8 million a year it spends paying interpreters to communicate with non-English speaking offenders.

The force, which has to save £126 million over four years as part of Government budget cuts, said it can save at least £750,000 a year by changing the way it employs translators.

The force spends £1,898,000 on interpreters, who are used at police stations and in courts to translate more than 100 different languages.

Senior officers said the overhaul will end lucrative pay and perks packages.

But some interpreters said they were being forced out of the profession because the new contracts will halve rates of pay and removes travel expenses when it is introduced next month.

They have branded the cost-cutting overhaul as “dangerous”, claiming the changes could lead to the use of lesser qualified translators and the possibility police and court cases could collapse.

The force was due to discuss the changes at a meeting with interpreters at Tally Ho! in Edgbaston, Birmingham, this week. Under the current structure, officers would arrange interpreters to cover cases, without knowing how long they have been qualified, how they are rated or how close they are to the station.

The interpreters would then get paid while they travelled to the station and were guaranteed a minimum two hours payment whether they were needed for that long or not. Police could also find themselves paying for a court-level interpreter to simply tell a suspected offender what was going to happen to them in custody.

Now private firm Applied Language Solutions has been awarded a contract by the Ministry of Justice to manage interpreting services for the criminal justice system. West Midlands Police said the firm would find the nearest and most suitable interpreter for its needs.

Under the new deal, interpreters would see their hourly rates cut by as much as half, from £32 to a minimum of £16, the abolition of a minimum two-hour payment and the removal of travelling time payments and travel expenses.

It will also require the interpreters to sit a mandatory test, which they will have to pay £100 to sit. Marie Adamova, who has been working as an interpreter in Birmingham for the last four years, is worried about the changes.

The 46-year-old from the Czech Republic said: “My household will be in danger because of these changes and I may have to leave the profession.

“They can call you out at any time of the night or early morning and you have to leave straight away.

“If I am receiving £16 and there is no payments for travel time, parking or petrol, I will not be able to continue.

“But my biggest worry is that the most qualified and experienced interpreters will be forced to leave the profession.

“If they only attract students, or people who are not as well qualified, it increases the risks of errors and mistakes. If there is misinterpretation it is very serious.”

Ms Adamova, who has a Masters degree and a diploma in public service interpreting, added: “I think they should have consulted with us about cutting costs and maintaining standards.”

Another interpreter, who did not want to be named, said: “The system is being ripped apart by a bunch of accountants. If cheaper, less experienced and less qualified people are used there is a very serious risk of police and court cases collapsing at huge cost to the taxpayer.”

Chief Supt Steve Anderson, from West Midlands Police’s community justice & custody department said: “We do recognise that many of our interpreters have given excellent service to West Midlands Police and feel nervous about the new arrangements, but we are confident that over the next couple of months their fears will be allayed.”

Manchester Evening News correction

"Slash and burn" (a practising interpreter's views)

"Slash and burn" (a practising interpreter's views)

ITI Bulletin, September-October 2011

Call for end to court interpreting contract chaos

http://www.free-press-release.com/news-call-for-end-to-court-interpreting-contract-chaos-1314735491.html
August 30, 2011

Call for end to court interpreting contract chaos
Freelance court interpreters in the East Midlands are calling on the Government to end what they describe as “chaos and confusion” over plans to hand a £60 million contract for language services in the courts, tribunals and some police services to a commercial agency.

In July, Justice Minister Crispin Blunt MP made an announcement to Parliament that the Ministry of Justice intended to place a huge “framework contract” to provide interpreting and translation services in the criminal justice system to an agency. A Manchester-based company, Applied Language Solutions then started to claim that it had won the contract, however, the Ministry of Justice has so far not confirmed this, or made any other announcement.
Now, the Interpreters are calling for the Ministry to come clean over exactly what is going on. Yelena McCafferty, a Lincolnshire-based National Register Interpreter said “this has become a farce. Applied Language Solutions is recruiting linguists for a contract that does not appear to exist. The Company is trying to hire linguists for the courts and some police services, offering appalling terms and conditions. On some assignments, the effective rate of pay would fall below the minimum wage”.
Applied Language Solutions appears to have changed the terms and conditions for the interpreters it is trying to sign up at least 3 times in the space of month. It also says that linguists who want to work in the criminal justice system need to be re-tested by Middlesex University, but has revealed few details of how this will be done, who the examiners are and exactly how much they will charge interpreters for the exam.
Many qualified interpreters in the East Midlands, who are on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters currently used by the Courts Service, are refusing to sign up with the agency.
Yelena McCafferty added “we have a situation where there does not appear to be a formal contract award, a vague plan to force interpreters to be retested and a company which changes its terms almost on a weekly basis. The Ministry of Justice should clarify what is going on with the National Framework Contract, to end what appears to us to be a confused mess”.
An open letter has now been sent to the Ministry of Justice calling for it to make a clear, public statement to end the unease and uncertainty over the future of interpreting services.

'Major pay cut' for court interpreters in Lincolnshire

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Court-interpreters-face-huge-pay-cut-new-plans/story-13190969-detail/story.html

August 24, 2011

'Major pay cut' for court interpreters in Lincolnshire

COURT interpreters in Lincolnshire face a dramatic pay cut as a result of a new national database.

Linguist Lounge, operated by Applied Language Solutions (ASL), have a framework agreement to provide interpreters for all courts in England and Wales from October 1.

But interpreters say that ALS are offering them a 60-80 per cent pay cut when factoring in travel time and costs.

They are currently paid £85 for a minimum of three hours' work. They are also given travel expenses.

However, ALS will not be offering travel expenses and will be offering a new, lower three-tier rate of pay.

Director of Boston-based Talk Russian Ltd, Yelena McAfferty, said: "This deal makes it totally unviable to work. We are all refusing to sign up.

"Under these conditions, you are better off working in Asda packing shelves.

"If interpreters in Lincolnshire are not working for the agency then they will have to get them from outside the county."

ALS are asking their interpreters to take a new test as part of their requirements, even if they hold a diploma or degree.

Russian interpreter Tanya Squires said: "We are not prepared to be re-tested because to become a qualified interpreter costs a lot of money.

"There are not many qualified interpreters registered in Lincolnshire."

Miss Squires fears that students who are less qualified will have to fill in for experienced interpreters.

She said: "You have to be prepared for any task and you have to know what it involves."

Steve Brade, whose wife Patrycja works as a Polish interpreter, fears there will be miscarriages of justice as a result of the agreement.

He said: "Nobody's willing to sign the contract. I know only one person that's done it. It seems ASL have taken the contract on without having anyone in place.

"There are already businesses in Scotland who have similar agreements and there have been miscarriages of justice reported in Scotland."

His wife Patrycja Walewska-Brade said that to become a qualified interpreter already costs thousands of pounds.

She said: "Basically we are going to be working for free."

Miss McAfferty said that the Professional Interpreters' Alliance will be looking for a judicial review into the decision.

She said: "We believe this is the only way to save our profession before hundreds of us will have to make tough decisions."

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "The Government is determined to ensure taxpayers get value for money across the whole of the justice system. We have announced that we will cut interpretation costs by at least £18 million a year, whilst still ensuring high quality interpreters and translators are available to those in need."

Cumbrian court interpreters protest at shake-up

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/cumbrian-court-interpreters-protest-at-shake-up-1.868350?referrerPath=news
16 August 2011

Cumbrian court interpreters protest at shake-up

Interpreters in Cumbria will travel to Manchester next week to take part in a protest over plans to contract with one supplier to provide language services at courts and tribunals.

Manchester-based Applied Language Solutions (ALS) was selected by the Ministry of Justice for the contract to provide the services and a judicial review is being considered against that decision.

Many independent interpreters say they do not want to be agency workers and fear standards will be lowered with cuts in pay and fewer security safeguards leading to miscarriages of justice.

They also fear the change will lead to a drop in interpreting quality.

Guillermo Makin, of the Society for Public Service Interpreting Ltd, said: “When and if a misguided Ministry of Justice (MoJ) project is decided on, and interpreters are hoping in the interest of justice they are not, interpreting services will be farmed out to a private monopoly that will also regulate the profession.

“Interpreter organisations have repeatedly offered the Ministry of Justice a plan in writing that would not increase expenditure but would cut it. There is a precedent.

“Working in collaboration with Cambridgeshire Police, interpreter organisations have helped Cambridgeshire Police save 30 per cent in the last financial year.

“The ill-thought out MoJ scheme will also destroy an asset, the National Register of Public Service Interpreters, (NRPSI) the independent regulator that the 2010 EU directive the UK has signed up to mandates.

“Our cost analysis indicates that instead of achieving savings the scheme without taking lost trials and appeals into account would push spending from £40m to £60m up to £95m.”

Mr Makin says the SPSI would offer a call service that would save police time searching for available interpreters.

Polish translator Mateusz Kiecz, who contacted the News & Star, said: “A lot of professional and experiences linguists around the country are now gathering for walkouts to protest against this contract as it will have detrimental effect on delivery of justice for minorities.

“It could lead to inexperienced and unqualified people working within the delicate environment as the Criminal Justice System.

A spokeswoman for the MoJ said: “Interpreters and translators provide a vital service, ensuring speakers of all languages have equal access to justice.

“The Government is committed to maintaining the high quality of these services, but believes the same level of service can be achieved for less.

“We are in the process of finalising a framework agreement with a commercial provider, which will streamline the system of sourcing and booking an interpreter, saving money and staff time. We are working to ensure all cases are heard efficiently.”

But many independent interpreters say they do not want to be agency workers and fear standards will be lowered with cuts in pay and fewer security safeguards leading to miscarriages of justice.

ALS says the centralisation of bookings makes it possible to “efficiently and fairly distribute the work available for each language in a given region.”

The protest, similar to one held in Bradford last week, will take place in front of Manchester Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in Piccadilly Plaza on Monday at 10am.