2nd October 2012
Report slams court
translation contract
A translation contract that caused “courtroom chaos” has been condemned
in a Government report.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said the privatisation of court
interpreters, awarded to Applied Language Solutions (ALS), was “wholly
inadequate”. It comes after a string of problems, including the halting of a
murder trial at Winchester Crown Court in July.
As revealed by the Daily Echo, the judge , Mr Justice Barnett,
temporarily stopped the trial when a man turned up to translate because his
wife – the real interpreter – was busy elsewhere. He wrongly translated a
number of key words and phrases. Investigations found he was not qualified or
registered with ALS.
The NAO report said the Ministry of Justice had underestimated the risks
involved with granting the monopoly, as well as objections from within the
industry and failing to check whether the company had enough qualified staff on
its books.
The Ministry of Justice accepted there had been problems at the start of
the contract, but insisted there had since been an improvement.
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