Linguist Lounge

Twitter shows Capita's court interpreting contract is still failing

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Category: Analysis and Comment

Published on Saturday, 25 May 2013 10:54

Written by Twitter user

24^th May 2013

Gerry ‏@archangelolill
@EricBurrows Interpretation fiasco cost more money than intended be saved last week 2 days lost in criminal trial - interpreter did no show

Peter Casson ‏@CassonPeter
At Crewe mags.  Capita   unable to  provide Indonesian interpreter for man in custody case adjourned until next Tuesday

Andrew ‏@Andjones1000
@TheCriminalBar Newport Crown Court. Vietnamese Defendant not able to be sentenced as no interpreter arrived at court. Efficiency???

Alison Rafferty ‏@aliheyworth
London friend tells of French man who shines shoes in the city. Used to be court interpreter but makes more shining shoes

23^rd May 2013

Gentleman Gardeners @Gardenersccxi
Sentence listed 10.30. 10 defendants. 12 counsel. Capita booked interpreter was on holiday until yesterday so had not been told of hearing. at the moment Capita are trying to find an alternative. Case was fixed today 11th March. Interpreter booked 15th March. Judge orders someone to attend from Capita at 2.15 to explain why they have failed to organise interpreter. Capita fiasco. Now case is adjourned until we have some answer from Capita. If the case does not start today it will have to go off. Still no interpreter. We all sit and wait. Adjourned until 2. Capita ordered to attend.

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Response to Ministry of Justice’s published full year statistics on the use of languages services in courts and tribunals

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Category: Analysis and Comment

Published on Thursday, 23 May 2013 18:00

Written by Kasia Beresford

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published its third statistical bulletin (Bulletin 3) relating to the use of language services in courts and tribunals on the 28^th March 2013. It covers the first full year of implementation of the Framework Agreement (FWA) with Capita Translation & Interpreting. It is in a similar format to the previous two bulletins even though the adequacy of this approach has been questioned as it does not present a full picture of the language services required (paragraph 141 Justice Committee report 6/2/13) and contains no data about the Tiers of interpreters used or any form of quality indicator (as recommended in paragraph 177 Justice committee report 6/2/13).

The report may have been prepared by a statistician, but it is in no way impartial and its presentation is skewed towards supporting the status quo.

This response presents key data from the published statistical tables summarised into in a simple format, which allows a numerate reader to gain an overview of the performance and trend over the year that has been obscured by the official presentation.

Table 1 shows the total requests for language services by month, subdivided into those where the FWA delivered (Bulletin 3 category Fulfilled + category Customer did not attend), those where it failed to deliver (Bulletin 3 category Not fulfilled by supplier + category Supplier did not attend) and cancellations (Bulletin 3 category Cancelled by customer). Over the year Capita delivered (leaving aside all questions of quality and what was actually delivered) in only 80% of cases. It failed to deliver 9% of the time and 11% falls into the controversial category of Cancellations.

The trend over the year is clear:

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Interpreters and legal aid consultation

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Category: Analysis and Comment

Published on Monday, 20 May 2013 20:57

Written by Matthew Scott

Criminal barristers and solicitors are now about to be subjected to the same MoJ treatment as interpreters.  Under a "consultation" exercise Mr Grayling's plan is to close down 3/4 of solicitors' firms and remove the right of suspects or defendants to choose their solicitors. It is quite outrageous, and all to save a tiny amount.  If you care, please sign the save uk justice petition  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48628 (tinyurl.com/itsmychoice) & see "Is Mr Grayling’s Legal Aid Consultation Genuine Or A Sham? Ask An Interpreter" at http://barristerblogger.com/?p=213

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Northpod Law: Legally Speaking

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Category: Analysis and Comment

Published on Friday, 17 May 2013 09:32

Written by Northpod Law

On this week's show, we look into the use of interpreters in courts and police stations and find out why a Ministry of Justice contract with Applied Language Solutions Ltd (now known as Capita Translation and Interpreting Ltd) is causing concern for interpreters, courts and parties to proceedings.

We speak with Mirela Watson, a Romanian interpreter with over a decade of experience and qualifications, about what is wrong with the present system and where the dangers lie.

If you want to read the BBC article about the Snaresbrook case, it is here.

The Court of Appeal decision referred to is here.

The place to register your concerns about cases such as those discussed is here.

We will bring you Capita's response in next week's show, if we receive comment.

Click here to listen to the show. Mirela Watson's interview from 0:28:10

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Capita-TI on its knees begging their current 'linguists' to recruit new 'linguists'

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Category: Analysis and Comment

Published on Monday, 13 May 2013 19:56

Written by Anonymous

Last week, on 08/05/13, Capita Translation and Interpreting sent me an email 'about an exciting opportunity to earn some additional income.' 

As a Capita interpreter, you would think that Capita were going to give you another pay rise, from the recent May 1st payment benefit, but no, you were wrong...

This is what they sent me... 

Dear linguist,

We are writing to tell you about an exciting opportunity to earn some additional income.

Our workloads are continuing to increase and we are always looking to recruit qualified interpreters. For a limited period we are introducing a recommend a friend scheme to reward you if you can successfully introduce us to appropriate qualified interpreters.

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