Baroness Morris of Yardley, who is chair of the House of Lords Public Services Committee, has written about their inquiry in the Law Gazette.

Some of the key points are:

"The House of Lords Public Services Committee inquiry into Interpreting Services in the Courts took evidence from court officials, barristers, solicitors, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and interpreters themselves. We found a real disconnect between what the government hopes is happening, what the language companies believe is happening and what front-line workers report is happening with interpreting in the courts.

• Our report concludes that the current data collection, quality assurance and complaints systems lead to a significant under reporting of problems and could threaten the effectiveness of some court cases.

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• Every day there are many highly qualified, excellent interpreters, successfully helping to deliver justice in the courts. The interpreter workforce is fundamental in bringing about the improvements that we want to see. Interpreting is a competitive field, and demands highly-qualified, expert professionals.

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• However, the evidence points to a significant crisis in the recruitment and retention of these professionals. Low and opaque pay, a lack of control over earnings, poor remuneration for cancelled or delayed bookings and a lack of professional respect is leading too many interpreters to seek work elsewhere.

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All these problems are solvable. The MoJ is currently in the process of negotiating a new contract for Interpreting Services in the Courts and it must seize the opportunity to solve the problems outlined in our report and to reform the service. Failure to do so really could mean that justice for some, is indeed lost in translation."

See Baroness Morris's full article in the Law Gazette here.