11
November 2014
Magistrates'
Courts
Ministry of
Justice
Andy
Slaughter (Shadow
Minister (Justice); Hammersmith, Labour)
To
ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times magistrates' courts
hearings in each district have had to be postponed for lack of (a) prosecution
preparedness, (b) the failure of Capita interpreters' contract, (c) lack of
availability of court and (d) any other reason in the last year.
Shailesh Vara (The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice;
North West Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Data
are published in Court Statistics Quarterly showing the number of trials in
magistrates’ courts which are ineffective or postponed on the day of trial.
This is for a variety of agreed reasons, including “Prosecution not ready”,
“Interpreter availability” and “Court administration”. However, this only
includes cases that have been listed for trial and are adjourned, not for any
other hearings, such as preliminary hearings, guilty plea hearings or
sentencing. HMCTS does not centrally collate the data on adjourned hearings,
other than trials, and the reasons behind the adjournment.
The
volume of trials listed in magistrates’ courts, and those which were
ineffective, are published in Table 3.5 of Court Statistics Quarterly which can
be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/court-statistics-quarterly
The
national Criminal Justice Board, chaired by my Rt Hon Friend the Minister for
Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims, is overseeing the Transforming
Summary Justice programme, a collaboration between police, CPS and the
courts to ensure that cases in the magistrates’ courts are prepared and
prosecuted in a timely and efficient manner. It is currently being rolled out.
11
November 2014
Applied
Language Solutions
Ministry of
Justice
Andy
Slaughter
(Shadow Minister (Justice); Hammersmith, Labour)
To
ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what financial penalties ALS/Capita has
paid in each month of (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 for missing agreed service delivery
standards since taking over the contract for the delivery of language services
to his Department.
Andrew
Selous
(The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Assistant Whip (HM
Treasury); South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
Capita
TI only gets paid for completed bookings, so if it cannot supply an
interpreter, it does not get paid. The Ministry of Justice manages service
delivery and performance through a number of methods and remedies open to it
under the contract. The Ministry is continually working with the supplier to
improve performance delivery standards.
If
performance in a particular month falls below that stated in the contract (98%)
success rate, the department receives a monetary credit from Capita TI. Service
Credits can be imposed on Capita TI in line with the terms of the contract. The
Service Credits are calculated at the end of each financial year and not
monthly and from the beginning of the contract. In January 2012 till March 2014
the total amount of services credits are as below:
The
service credit amounts for Jan 2012 – March 2014
£53,777.00
The
interpreting contract was introduced to tackle the inefficiencies and
inconsistencies in the previous system. The contract has delivered significant
improvements so far and we now have a system that is robust, sustainable and
able to deliver a quality service at an affordable level. As a result of the
contract, we have spent £27m less in the first two years it has been running,
and it continues to reduce the burden on taxpayers.
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