1 July 2014
Interpreters
and Translation Services
Oral Answers to
Questions — Justice
Valerie
Vaz
(Walsall South, Labour)
What
recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of provision of interpreters and
translation services in court.
Shailesh
Vara (The
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice; North West Cambridgeshire,
Conservative)
There
have been dramatic improvements in performance in the last two years and we
continue to manage contracts to ensure that the improvements continue. We
appointed independent assessors to carry out a review of interpreter quality
standards earlier this year and look forward to receiving their recommendations
shortly.
Valerie
Vaz
(Walsall South, Labour)
The
reality is that a constituent of mine who was sitting on a jury had to have the
court adjourned for four days while it looked for a translator. Why have the
payments to Capita Translation and Interpreting increased from £7 million to
£15 million over the past two years?
Shailesh
Vara
(The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice; North West
Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
It
is always regrettable when there are such individual circumstances, but the
hon. Lady will appreciate that I cannot comment on specific cases. However,
dramatic improvements in performance have occurred in the last two years and
Capita routinely fills 95% of requests. On funding, I hope that she appreciates
that in the first year of the contract, £15 million of British taxpayers’ money
was saved.
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