Courts: Interpreters
Justice

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Photo of Sadiq Khan

Sadiq Khan (Tooting, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many court cases have collapsed as a result of an absence of a suitable interpreter or translator since the beginning of his Department's contract with Applied Language Solutions.

Photo of Helen Grant

Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald, Conservative)

The reasons for court case adjournments are not recorded as a matter of course. It is not possible to identify which adjournments are due to a lack of interpreter.

Ineffective trials in magistrates and Crown courts do record the reason for being ineffective, although this does not mean that the case collapses as it will be re-listed. Ineffective trials are those that do not start on the due date and require rescheduling.

The contract on language services has been operational since 30 January 2012. Data on ineffective trials were included in the court statistics for the first and second quarters of 2012. There were 345 magistrates court and 17 Crown court trials which were ineffective due to interpreter availability, out of over 100,000 listed trials across England and Wales.

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Annotations

Vivienne Berry
Posted on 8 Jan 2013 2:14 pm (Report this annotation)

During the 10th October 2011 adjournment debate the then minister Nick Herbert said:

"Let us first remember that the current system does not meet our needs. We already have the unacceptable position that approximately 400 magistrates court trials and a number of considerably more expensive Crown court trials cannot go ahead as listed because the interpreter does not attend court."

Klasiena Slaney
Posted on 9 Jan 2013 12:39 am (Report this annotation)

The Ministry of Justice's language service contract - Public Accounts Committee
2 Implementation of the Ministry of Justice contract
14. The inability of Capita-ALS to provide sufficient interpreters to meet demand has impacted on the delivery of justice. The number of ineffective trials due to interpreter availability doubled from 95 to 182. This number excludes delays that did not cause a trial to be ineffective and delays and cancellations of non-trial hearings. We heard of cases where individuals were kept on remand solely because of lack of interpreter availability and a case where the trial went ahead without an interpreter even though one had been booked. [26] The Ministry did not have the management information to be able to ascertain the cost of problems due to the lack of interpreters. The Ministry estimated the cost of ineffective trials at £60,000, but this is an underestimate and does not account for costs associated with delays, non-trials, the time of victims and witnesses and the use of custody.[27]
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/c...

 

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