12 September 2012
Statement from PAC Chair on NAO report: The
Ministry of Justice's language services contract
A Statement from the Rt Hon Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of Committee of
Public Accounts
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. The Ministry also took 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. 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.
The Ministry must 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.
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