9 August 2012
MP Calling for Urgent Investigation
into Court Interpreters Contract
The news
that interpreters from a private company
are working in the courts without the required criminal record checks has been
met with incredulity by Bassetlaw MP, John Mann.
Private company, Applied Language
Service (ALS), took over the £300m contract earlier this year and has since
faced criticism from judges, politicians and lawyers for the poor quality of
its interpreters.
Since ALS took over at the beginning
of February, solicitors, translators and magistrates across England and Wales
have reported numerous cases of interpreters failing to attend, not speaking
the right language and not accurately translating proceedings.
Before John Mann became an MP he was
involved in running an interpretation service and won government and
international contracts requiring high quality interpreters with a commitment
to confidentiality and sensitivity. He said “In my previous life I was involved
in organising interpreters who were negotiating highly sensitive contracts and
agreements at government and senior management levels. High standards, high quality and
confidentiality were absolutely critical to the work we did. It therefore concerns me that cost cutting
measures by Justice Minister, Ken Clarke has forced standards down and
introduced risks. Without proper vetting
or controls anyone can walk off the street and become an interpreter. This has
undermined the security of our courts and the ongoing justice implications are
immense”.
Mann is calling for the Justice
Select Committee to urgently investigate the ALS contract saying “this is a
disaster in the making, we cannot have poor quality interpreters without the
proper CRB checks in our legal services.
The Justice Select Committee should begin an immediate inquiry and I
will be happy to give evidence on my experience of maintaining interpretation
high standards”.
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