Statistics on the use of language services in courts and tribunal

http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/courts-and-sentencing/language-services-in-use 
18 October 2012

Statistical bulletin, 30 January 2012 to 31 August 2012

The report is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

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Main findings

Number of requests for language services

During the period covered by this bulletin (30 January 2012 to 31 August 2012), there were 72,043 completed requests for language services covering 163 different languages. Of these requests, 53.4 per cent were for criminal cases (including Crown and magistrates’ courts cases, and requests made by prisons), 38.5 per cent were for tribunal cases (including immigration and asylum), and the remaining 8.1 per cent were for civil or family cases.

Of the total requests, 8,222 (11.4 per cent) were cancelled by the requesting customer (HMCTS or NOMS). Of the remaining 63,821 requests, 56,818 were either fulfilled by the contractor Applied Language Services or the requesting customer failed to attend, giving a “success rate” of 89.0 per cent over the whole period.

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Complaints

There were 3,937 complaints recorded relating to completed requests made within the time period. The majority of the complaints came from tribunals (2,256, 57.3 per cent), with the most common reason for complaint being that the interpreter was late getting to the assignment (589 complaints, 26.1 per cent of complaints by tribunals). At criminal courts and prisons, the most common reason for complaint was that there was no interpreter available (34.6 per cent of complaints by these requesters).

Read more here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/courts-and-sentencing/language-services-in-use