15 May 2012
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South, Labour)
Constituents of mine who are interpreters have given me a dossier about
Applied Language Solutions and its failings. Court hearings have been adjourned
and costs have been incurred. Will the Minister update the House on what action
he is taking against ALS—for breach of contract?
Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation),
Justice; Reigate, Conservative)
On 24 May, we will publish a full statistical analysis of the
performance of ALS up to 30 April. Since the contract went national after a
successful regional pilot in the north-west on 30 January, there were significant
problems with the exercise of that contract, both related to the administration
by ALS and to the attitude of interpreters engaging with ALS. I am pleased to
be able to report to the House that the performance of ALS and its owner Capita
has considerably improved in this area. The position has improved further since
30 April, and it is achieving very nearly now the performance required under
the contract.
15 May 2012
Translation
Services
Justice
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of hearings or
trials requiring interpreters have been delayed due to Applied Language
Solutions not providing an interpreter in the last year.
Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation), Justice;
Reigate, Conservative)
Full implementation of the contract with Applied Language Solutions
commenced on 30 January 2012. There were an unacceptable number of problems in
the first weeks of full implementation of the contract, however the Government
took swift action to require improvements and performance has now improved
significantly.
Information on the number of hearings or trials delayed due to problems
with the new interpretation and translation contract is not available. The
Chief Statistician for the Ministry of Justice has already announced plans to
publish statistics on the use of interpreters in courts on 24 May 2012.
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