31 May 2012 by Catherine
Baksi
'Self-serving' interpreter figures slammed
The shadow justice minister
has criticised as ‘self-serving’ performance data released on the company
contracted to provide court interpreters. The data, published by the Ministry
of Justice last week, revealed that hundreds of cases were still being
disrupted by a shortage of interpreters three months into the contract.
Applied Language Solutions
(ALS) took over the provision of interpreters to courts in February under a
contract which aims to cut costs by a third. Members of several groups
representing professional interpreters are refusing to work with the Capita-owned
company.
The performance data reveal that from 30 January to 30 April ALS provided an
interpreter in 81% of the cases where courts requested one. Its performance
target was 98%. There were 26,059 requests for interpreters at courts and
tribunals in England and Wales, covering 142 languages in the period.
Overall ‘fulfilment’ rate
for requests increased from 65% in February to 90% in April, with success rates
varying between 58-95% for the 20 most requested languages.
The figures were given to
the MoJ by ALS, and verified by ‘spot checks’ carried out by the courts
service, the MoJ said.
Andy Slaughter said this week that the figures were ‘substantially self-serving’. Even so, he
added, they indicate ‘meltdown’ from day one, and show that hundreds of
hearings are still being disrupted. He said the figures failed to quantify
knock-on costs of the failures to provide interpreters: ‘In some incidences,
where people have been detained unnecessarily in custody overnight or where
Crown court trials have been adjourned, those costs could run into thousands of
pounds.’
An MoJ spokesman said: ‘We
have seen a significant and sustained improvement in performance. We continue
to monitor the improvement on a daily basis.’
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