Courts (Applied Language Solutions)
Oral Answers to
Questions — Justice
18 Sep 2012
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South,
Labour)
What assessment he
has made of the effectiveness of the language services for courts provided by
Applied Language Solutions.
Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald, Conservative)
The hon. Lady may be aware of problems that occurred when the contract
started in January, but the National Audit Office’s recent report, published on
12 September, showed that ALS was filling 95% of its bookings and complaints
had fallen. The Department continues to monitor the performance of ALS against
the key performance indicators. We published a statistical report in May and
plan to publish an updated report later in the year.
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South, Labour)
I thank the Minister for her response and welcome her to her post. She
brings a unique expertise to the team. May I also pay tribute to Mr Clarke? He
was a good Lord Chancellor.
The Minister will be aware that there is a legal duty under the Human
Rights Act to provide interpreters, and a judge last month said ALS was
dreadful—a plague on the courts and incompetent. What steps will the Minister
take to ensure there is no waste of public money in delayed and adjourned
cases?
Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald, Conservative)
The Ministry of Justice acted quickly to put a plan in place when it
became obvious that there were performance problems. We are not being
complacent and we will continue to monitor performance, but we are seeing some
substantial improvements. The framework with ALS is intended to provide better
value for money. It also provides an opportunity to reduce a great deal of
the administrative burdens that were placed on the justice agencies
under the old system. The contract is also expected to save the Ministry of
Justice in the region of £15 million a year.
Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith, Labour)
The Minister must be irritated to be spending her first few days in
office reading NAO reports detailing her predecessor’s cock-ups. Does she agree
with the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee that the NAO inquiry into the
language service contract has uncovered some shocking failings which have had a
dreadful impact on clients of the Court Service and people who work in the
interpretation service? If she does, will she now suspend the contract with
Applied Language Solutions, or is she happy to see interpreters with no
experience, qualifications or criminal records checks being used in serious and
sensitive criminal cases?
Helen Grant (Maidstone and The
Weald, Conservative)
I do not agree with
that. We are seeing significant improvements—
Sadiq Khan (Tooting, Labour)
Really?
Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald, Conservative)
Yes we are, and the Opposition also need to accept that the NAO report
accepted that the Government had good reasons for making changes from the old
system.
John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead, Labour)
Further
to Question 6, is there any indication that any prisoner has received an
inappropriate sentence because of the failings of Applied Language Solutions,
given that, as the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Mrs Grant said, it has
failed to fulfil 5% of its bookings even after the improvements that she talked
about?
We have
seen no such evidence. If the hon. Gentleman has a constituency
case that he wants to bring to us, he should feel free to do so.
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