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Joint statement from regional police forces: “In light of the recent news regarding Language Empire Ltd, we are currently reviewing the information presented and our position in relation to the service.” The contract with South Yorkshire Police is worth an estimated £783,000, with Humberside Police at £515,000 and with North Yorkshire Police at £490,000.
Language Empire Ltd that set up bogus websites to mimic thebigword managed to divert a third of its internet traffic for almost three years, it was revealed in court on Wednesday. In a landmark judgement at London’s Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, the Rochdale-based business was ordered to pay double the damages sought by thebigword, after a judge agreed it made “significant sales” by converting enquiries from the websites.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what safeguards his Department has in place to ensure that contracted interpreters for courts and tribunals are appropriately qualified and competent in the use of (a) the foreign language they are translating into English, (b) the English language, (c) English law and (d) English and Welsh judiciary's legal terms; and what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of those safeguards.
The lord chief justice has been invited to meet the courtroom interpreters he predicts will be out of a job 'within a few years' as a result of advances in technology. However, the Institute of Translation and Interpreting says Burnett's prediction is based on unproven assumptions.
