September 12, 2012 by Frances Gibb
Ministry
criticised over interpreter chaos
The Ministry of Justice has
been castigated over a £90 million contract to a company to provide courts with
interpreters that led to chaos in courtrooms.
In a series of criticisms
the National Audit Office today condemns the ministry for allowing the contract
to go ahead before the company was ready, leading to a “wholly inadequate”
performance.
It says that the ministry’s
“due diligence” was inadequate and that it “underestimated” the risks of moving
from a regional to a national scheme.
The Ministry also failed to
“give sufficient weight” to the concerns and dissatisfaction that many
interpreters expressed.
And it allowed the
contract, with the company, Applied Language Solutions (ALS) to become fully
operational before it had sufficient interpreters assessed and recruited, the
NAO says.
As for the operation of the
contract, the company’s performance was “wholly inadequate”, leading to missed
performance targets and about one fifth of the work in courts and tribunals
being done under the old arrangements.
The new system for
supplying interpreters in courts in England and Wales was introduced in January
this year with a view to saving an estimated £15 million a year.
But months of chaos in the
courts ensued as interpreters supplied by ALS either made errors, turned up
late or not at all. As a result, trial hearings were adjourned or cancelled and
the Government made to pay costs.
Margaret Hodge, MP, who
chairs the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, said: “It is
appalling that the Ministry awarded ALS a £90 million contract to provide a
service essential to ensuring the proper administration of justice that was
clearly beyond this company’s ability to deliver.
“The Ministry overlooked
its own due diligence process which showed ALS was simply too small to shoulder
a contract of this value.”
She added that the ministry
had also taken no account “of the resolve of many experienced interpreters not
to work for this company.”
Against a target of 98 per
cent, ALS supplied an interpreter in only 58 per cent of hearings in February
2012. “This unacceptably poor performance led to courtroom chaos.
“It forced court staff to
interrupt their core duties to find interpreters at short notice and triggered
a steep rise in the number of abandoned trials.
“Where interpreters were
supplied, their quality was at times inexcusably bad. This resulted in poorly
translated charges to defendants and incorrect evidence to juries.”
Ms Hodge added that ALS
could not even guarantee that interpreters had undergone mandatory Criminal
Records Checks.
“My concern is that the
resulting delays and hearing cancellations caused distress for victims,
defendants and witnesses, additional costs to the taxpayer and damage to the
reputation of the justice system.
She called on the Ministry
to take immediate steps to strengthen its approach to conducting due diligence
for complex contracts.
“ALS performance needs to
improve and, importantly, the Ministry must ensure that Capita – who purchased
ALS in late 2011 – completes checks on all interpreters working on the contract
without any further delay.”
The NAO report says that
despite improvements, problems with the quality of some of the ALS interpreters
are still reported, the NAO says.
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