The cross-party House of Lords Public Services Committee is currently undertaking an inquiry into Interpreting and Translation Services (ITS) in the Courts.
Key links
Background
The Committee invited written evidence on topics including:
- The extent to which the current ITS provided in court meets the needs of defendants, prosecutors, witnesses and legal professionals;
- The key issues in the provision of ITS and how they impact the running of the courts, public trust, interpreters and translators;
- The qualifications and experience of interpreters and translators and the recruitment process, including any barriers to recruitment;
- Quality assurance and complaints procedure in relation to ITS;
- The potential role of new technology (such as artificial intelligence, machine translation and the digitisation of court proceedings) in the future of interpreting or translation services in the courts.
Chair's Comments
Baroness Morris of Yardley, Chair of the Public Services Committee said:
“It is vital that people in court, including victims of crimes, witnesses and those charged with offences have equal access to justice, can be understood and understand what is happening in the court, regardless of what language they speak. However, there are concerning reports of people struggling to access interpreting and translation services in the courts.
“Existing issues surrounding the procurement and provision of language services for the public sector have already been highlighted in an October 2023 report by the Association of Translation Companies. That report included a conclusion that the provision of interpretation and language services was fragmented across the UK, which in turn caused complications with procurement and implementing and monitoring best practice. Other studies have also highlighted problems with recruitment and retention of translators due to poor remuneration.
“We have asked for written evidence submissions and will be holding a small number of oral evidence sessions during this short inquiry. Our aim is to effectively scrutinise the ITS policy and process, including the potential use of technology in providing these services, solutions to translator recruitment, quality assurance and impact of ITS on the courts and court users. Effective delivery of ITS in the courts is essential and we will be seeking recommendations to facilitate this.”
CIOL's input
The Chartered Institute of Linguists shared the 'Working Together' White Paper with the Committee, as highlighted by Baroness Morris, which set out urgent recommendations agreed across a broad range of language stakeholders in 2023 for tackling immediate challenges around procurement and provision of language services for the UK’s public sector.
CIOL CEO John Worne has also written recently with CIOL Council Member Dr Diana Singureanu, who is a research fellow at the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Surrey, on these issues in the Law Gazette.
A wide range of stakeholders, legal professionals and interpreters have contributed their own experiences and perspectives in the comprehensive written evidence collected by the Inquiry.
John Worne also appeared before the committee with Mike Orlov of NRPSI and Sara Robertson of ITI to give oral evidence on 6 November 2024.
