19 Apr 2012
Translation
Services
Justice
Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) how many applications for mistrial or unlawful detention have been
brought relating to a failure to provide adequate translation services by
Applied Language Solutions in the last 12 months;
(2) what steps he is taking in respect of the failure to provide
translators by Applied Language Solutions;
(3) how much his Department spent on translation services in each of the
last 12 months.
Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation),
Justice; Reigate, Conservative)
Information on applications for mistrial or unlawful detention in
relation to a failure to provide adequate translation, or indeed interpretation
services is not collected centrally.
My officials continue to meet with the contractor and demand continued
improvement in performance and seek to ensure that the contractor meets the
contracted levels of performance. Contingency arrangements to minimise
disruption to courts and tribunals will remain in place until then.
Translation forms a small subset of overall spend on interpretation and
translation services. Under the previous arrangements information on spending
on translation services was not collected centrally. As made clear on 28
February 2012, Official
Report, column 190W, the cost across the justice system was estimated
to be in the region of £60 million. Based on those estimates, spending in the
Department is estimated to be in the region of £25-28 million per year across
Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service, Her Majesty's Prison Service and the
Probation Service. Because information on spending in this specific area has
never been collected centrally, the Ministry is unable to provide a full
monthly breakdown.
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