Tory minister admits new court interpreter system is 'unacceptable'
The parliamentary under-secretary of state for prisons and youth justice has admitted that the Government’s new court interpreter system is “unacceptable”.
Tory MP Crispin Blunt
Tory MP Crispin Blunt told the House of Commons earlier this week that there have been “an unacceptable number of problems in the first two weeks of full implementation of the contract”.
Since the implementation of the new system on 30 January, there has been widespread criticism over the large number of unnecessary delays and instances where interpreters were late, underprepared, underqualified or failed to turn up at all (16 February 2012).
Under the new system, court interpreters are now sourced from one single agency, Applied Language Solutions (ALS), rather than selected from the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI).
The contract with ALS is set to save the Government £18m a year, but the MoJ was forced to rapidly backpedal after facing mounting criticism over the inadequacies of the new system (23 February 2012). As an interim measure, courts have now been told that they can make their own arrangements for the time being while the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) tries to iron out the problems.
An estimated 60 per cent of the 2,300 interpreters on the NRPSI are still refusing to work for ALS and there has been a number of protests against the new system, including demonstrations outside courts in Manchester and Bradford.
As The Lawyer revealed, an email sent from ALS chairman Gavin Wheeldon to the Professional Interpreters Alliance indicates that the agency has made a number of changes to its payment rates (23 February 2012).
A spokesman from MoJ said that it is continuing to work with ALS to monitor the operation of the new contract.
Readers' comments (7)
Neil McCafferty | 2-Mar-2012 12:41 pm
They were supposed to have improved things last week, but it is just getting worse.
How many more excuses? Applied Language Solutions simply cannot deliver what they have promised. The contract is flawed. Rather than working with ALS, the MOJ should start talking to the interpreters and work out a way forward, without this ridculous and costly framework agreement.
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Kurdos | 2-Mar-2012 12:44 pm
Could you please remember to say that we NRPSI interpreters are refusing to take those "short notice" bookings that the MoJ has back pedalled to.
Many thanks.
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Anonymous | 2-Mar-2012 2:50 pm
MOJ (Ministry of Justice) has brought MOJ (misery of justice) with its FWA with ALS in the whole CJS ( Criminal Justice System)
One can say ALAS MOJ..
Please abolish the whole thing and go back to normal as it was up till 30 January..
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Anonymous | 2-Mar-2012 6:45 pm
I know two people at least who have taken work from ALS. One has no qalifications, however he took part in the ALS assessment and was placed in the lowest tier i.e. tier 3. This means that he must not be used during trials, statement taking and even police interviews. However, all the jobs he has accepted so far have been in the tier 1 category. Completely unacceptable.
A second friend took a few minutes in December to create a profile on ALS website and found out shortly that he had been placed tier 2. He was unaware of it until he started receiving calls from ALS offering him tier 1 jobs. This person has never been assessed by ALS. All he has done is that he has created a profile on ALS website which anybody can do. ALS does not have his proof of eligiblity to work in this country and doesn't know whether he is security cleared to work in the CJS. ALS doesn't even know if this person really exists with this name. All they have is his phone number and yet he is being called and offered tier 1 jobs.
I have written to the MoJ about both incidents and nothing has been done. The person who has been placed in tier 2 without his knowledge has posted his story on RPSI Language Lounge whereby he was sent to a police station for a tier 1 job and was asked to interpret in a language that he was not even fluent in.
ALS is treating everyone like fools and it beggars belief that MoJ doesn't see or understand it. They are making fun of the criminal justice system in this country, and yet our MoJ appears to be protecting them. It is very very sad.
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Anonymous | 3-Mar-2012 8:25 pm
I hope the professional interpreters treated so disgracefully by MoJ and the shysters at ALS raise their rates on the MoJ when this new system keels over. Make the xxxxxxs pay for debasing a highly skilled job.
I also hope the key parties on both sides, MoJ and ALS, are held criminally responsible for the damage they have caused.
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Richard | 14-Mar-2012 12:49 pm
Crispin Blunt yesterday had the temerity to blame greedy interpreters for not wanting to give up "their six figure salaries"! This from the man who trousers 2 grand a month for 8 hours extra-parliamentary work or a whopping £250 an hour, over 8 times the hourly rate of a court interpreter, or 17 times if we accept the ALS rate.
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Robert Beecham | 19-Mar-2012 10:25 pm
To get a 6 figure salary you need to earn £274 every day of the year. I have never earned £200 for a single day.
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