16/02/2013 by Frances Cook
Our Justice System Should
Be Smarter and Smaller - Not Privatised
"Nothing short of shambolic" uttered the
softly spoken Sir Alan Beith MP, chairman of the Justice Select Committee, as
he was passing judgement on the government's handling of court interpretation
services.
This service may sound like a minor detail, but
failing to provide an interpreter at the right time can lead to victims and
their families, some of whom will have waited years for a case to come to
court, see the trial collapse before their very eyes. Similarly, innocent
people can languish in remand cells while the courts struggle to find an
interpreter. These, according to the committee's report, have formed just part of the
litany of failings in a poorly managed outsourcing process, which has wasted
taxpayers' money and court time, while being unfair to victims and suspects
alike.
This should not be happening. Much as
interpretation services require the dedicated work of highly skilled
professionals, the service itself is comparatively straightforward. You get the
right interpreter to the right court at the right time. Sounds doable? Well,
for the private contractor involved, it seems not. […]
No comments:
Post a Comment