11th December 2012
Ministry
of Justice: Milestone meeting as Justice Minister engages interpreter groups
Helen Grant MP,
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Women and Equalities, held
positive discussions on 4th December with nine organisations who united as
umbrella group Professional Interpreters for Justice and whose representatives
were invited to talks.
In the meeting Helen Grant
MP said that the system needs the professional interpreter organisations and
that if all can work effectively and positively together it will be good for
the running of the justice system.
Problems with the operation
of the Ministry of Justice contract awarded to Applied Language Solutions (and
acquired by Capita at the end of 2011) prompted a critical National Audit
Office (NAO) report earlier this year and more recently there have been two
parliamentary inquiries by the Public Accounts Committee and Justice Select
Committee, who will publish their findings in coming weeks.
Professional Interpreters
for Justice has been invited to submit ideas on how the Ministry of Justice can
carry out the recommendations of the NAO report, with particular regard to
commissioning an independent evaluation of whether the new contract's quality
standards for interpreting and translation are adequate and the incentives
which might attract professionally qualified members of the interpreter
organisations back to court work.
The NAO highlighted in its
report that as few as 300 (13%) of the 2,300 professionally qualified
interpreters on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI)
are still working in the courts, which has caused problems with both supply and
quality of interpreting in courts under the new contract.
Keith Moffitt, Chair of the
Chartered Institute of Linguists, representing Professional Interpreters for
Justice, says:
"There's a real risk
of the legal interpreting profession collapsing and we are encouraged that the
Justice Minister wants to listen and properly engage the profession in the
interests of delivering justice. Our members are principled individuals who
feel their professional status has been watered down by the absence of quality
in this private contract. We'll be writing to the Minister with our proposals
for working groups to tackle the issues."
The Justice Minister
invited proposals from Professional Interpreters for Justice within 14 days.
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