19 Feb 2018
‘Privatised service impeding justice’
Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon has
criticised the “ideologically driven” privatisation of the court interpreting
service which he claims could lead to justice being denied for the victims and
the accused.
Mr Burgon’s spokesman said official figures
revealed that more than 3,200 magistrates and crown court trials have been
adjourned since the privatisation of the court interpreting service in January
2012 due to the lack of an interpreter.
However, a spokesman for Leeds-based thebigword,
which supplies interpreters for court cases, said it was misleading to claim
that interpreting services in courts and tribunals were not functioning
properly.
A spokesman for Mr Burgon said that the number of
complaints in the first 12 months of the new contract for court interpreting
services was 2,339, which is an increase on the 1,733 complaints made in the
last year of the old contract.
The Ministry of Justice contract for providing
interpreters for court and tribunal services has been held by thebigword since
2016. It was held by Capita from 2012 to 2016.
Mr Burgon said: “A failure to ensure a properly
functioning interpretation service seriously risks justice being denied for
victims and those accused.
“It is a worrying sign of ongoing failure that
complaints are up in the first 12 months since the new contract was awarded,
compared to a year earlier.
“The Government must take swift action to put an
end to the flaws in this system that mean almost half of all these complaints
are for things as basic as an interpreter not attending court or not being
available.
“The Government needs to explain how it is so sure
that its contracts are cost effective when it revealed, in response to my
Parliamentary questions, that it doesn’t even hold the basic information on the
wider costs to our justice system of thousands of cases each year that need an
interpreter not being fulfilled.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We have
strong contract management in place, and our most recent statistics show that
98 per cent of interpreter bookings are fulfilled, and complaints are at one
per cent.
“It is vital that victims, witnesses and defendants
understand what is happening in court to ensure justice is done, and we will
always take steps to make sure a qualified interpreter is provided when
needed.”
The spokesman added that, while the Ministry of
Justice accepts that any delayed hearing due to a lack of interpretation is
unacceptable, such instances are few.
The most recent published statistics for
ineffective trial rates, which covers the third quarter of 2017, show a lack of
interpreter availability was the reason for 0.3 per cent of trials being ineffective
in the magistrates’ court, and 0.1 per cent of crown court trials, the
spokeswoman said.
