Allegations of intimidation - in the wake of JSC hearings
The MoJ has just responded to my FOI request about the alleged intimidation of ALS linguists. Let's just remind ourselves what Wheeldon said to the Justice Select Committee on 30th October. "There are plenty of police reports of interpreters who have reported these incidents to the police. There have been interpreters working for us - NRPSI interpreters - who have been assaulted, spat on, and threatened. The list of things that went on was quite horrendous..."
Nick de Bois: Did you ever report that to the MoJ?
Wheeldon: Yes, we did.
Nick de Bois: How did they respond?
Wheeldon: Report it to the police. They took it very seriously. They were looking - I believe they put posters up in some of the courts around intimidation, but they were very aware of it.
Chair: Was anybody charged with any offence?
Wheeldon: A number of people have reported this to the police. I don’t know how those panned out in terms of criminal proceedings, but it was a serious problem.
As the MoJ reveals in its response, it was aware of precisely 6 incidents of alleged intimidation, but went on to say they have no information as to whether any of these were reported to the police, or what - if any- actions were taken as a consequence. This contradicts Wheeldon's assertion that the MoJ reported it to the police. Clearly, they did no such thing.