Rearrange the phrase or saying that includes these words: ‘rings’, ‘round’ and ‘running’. As the subject, start with ‘Capita (and previously Applied Language Solutions (ALS))’. Insert the verb ‘are’ and conclude with ‘HM Courts & Tribunals Service (aka the Ministry of Justice)’. And there you have it.
The reputable interpreter associations have been producing irrefutable evidence about the dismal plummeting in standards ever since the ministry insisted on the framework agreement against all evidence and reasoned arguments.
In the face of all common sense, it awarded an enormous and unachievable contract to Gavin Wheeldon’s one-man-band ALS, which was promptly gobbled up as a tasty morsel by Capita. What has ensued has been delivery which is but a pale shadow of the earlier national agreement regime, which worked satisfactorily for years.
Now the chickens have come home to roost. No one with relevant knowledge has been listened to. The Law Society, through its Criminal Law Committee, counselled against this in evidence before the parliamentary Constitutional Affairs Committee. But those seduced by Capita still professed to know better.
Any statistics boasting of improvements in delivery come from a self-interested source – Capita. The ministry hears what it wants to hear; we at the court coalface know better. Day in and day out, underperformance in interpreting services, or just plain non-delivery, and the potential for miscarriages of justice are the norm.
How much longer must this wasteful farce go on?
Malcolm Fowler, Dennings, Tipton
