The inquiry seeks to understand the experience of procuring ITS in the courts, policy recommendations for supporting service providers, and the potential role of technology in enabling ITS.聽 The Committee is inviting written evidence on topics including;
Baroness Morris of Yardley, Chair of the Public Services Committee said;
鈥淚t 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.
鈥淓xisting issues surrounding the procurement and provision of language services for the public sector have already been highlighted in an October 2023 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.
Organisations across the public sector use interpretation and translation services (ITS) to help people who use public services to overcome language barriers and communicate effectively. Our inquiry will focus on how ITS is used in the courts.
鈥淲e 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.鈥
The Chartered Institute of Linguists has already shared the 'Working Together' White Paper with the Committee as highlighted by Baroness Morris, which sets out urgent recommendations agreed across a broad range of language stakeholders for tackling immediate challenges around procurement and provision of language services for the UK鈥檚 public sector.
CEO John Worne has also written recently with 好色tv Council Member Dr Diana Singureanu, who is a research fellow at the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Surrey, .
We encourage 好色tv Members to add their own experiences and perspectives via the link to the Parliament website here:
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