Andy Slaughter comment on PAC report into the Ministry of Justice’s Language Service Contract
Andy Slaughter MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Minister, commenting on the report of the Public Accounts
Committee into the Ministry of Justice’s Language Service Contract, said:
“This must be one of the most
damning reports ever on a Government contract. There is very little positive to
show for the millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money – instead, what we saw was
a catastrophe of errors that almost brought our courts to a standstill. The
real fear is that because of the Tory-led Government’s incompetence, guilty
people have walked free and the innocent have been locked up.
"We need to get to the bottom of who was responsible and appropriate sanctions taken. The public’s confidence in our justice system will be rightly shaken by this catastrophe, and so we need the urgent inquiry to get to the bottom of any potential miscarriages of justice.
"When the crisis was at its worst, Labour were raising this every week with Ministers, who repeatedly maintained that the contract was working. This report shows very clearly that this was not the case, and they now need to provide an explanation for their misleading statements.
"This is yet another shining example of the incompetence and complacency at the heart of this Tory-led Government. With trained and dedicated interpreters continuing to refuse to work for the language service provider, the Government should suspend immediately the contract and start again from scratch.”
"We need to get to the bottom of who was responsible and appropriate sanctions taken. The public’s confidence in our justice system will be rightly shaken by this catastrophe, and so we need the urgent inquiry to get to the bottom of any potential miscarriages of justice.
"When the crisis was at its worst, Labour were raising this every week with Ministers, who repeatedly maintained that the contract was working. This report shows very clearly that this was not the case, and they now need to provide an explanation for their misleading statements.
"This is yet another shining example of the incompetence and complacency at the heart of this Tory-led Government. With trained and dedicated interpreters continuing to refuse to work for the language service provider, the Government should suspend immediately the contract and start again from scratch.”
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