Justice CommitteeWritten evidence from Ranjeeta Johnson
I am a fully qualified and vetted interpreter and translator in Nepalese language. I have worked in Criminal Justice System for last 14 years. I will not register or work for ALS.
I as a tax payer do not think that we can afford pay a private company who makes profit to run the language provision in public sector and deliver quality. Profit will always be their fist target, which will compromise quality. I am appalled at the attitude of MoJ towards our profession and complete disregard to the to the rights of the defendants, victims and the witnesses.
I am registered with NRPSI and I am also a member of ITI, CIoL, APCI, SOMI, SPSI and PIA. They are all submitting evidence to your committee both individually and collectively. I have had the opportunity to read them and I agree with its contents.
I fully support the submissions made by the above organizations and I sincerely hope that the unfair implementation of the Frame Work Agreement is abandoned.
In my personal and professional opinion this mess created by outsourcing has made UK a laughing stock in Europe and the rest of the world in the Justice sector.
If the independent judiciary in the UK is to have any kudos then this Frame Work Agreement has to be suspended and withdrawn with immediate effect and a proper consultation with the membership organizations has to take place to achieve the savings in this sector.
There have been numerous media coverage over this issue and interpreters have repeatedly written to their MPs with evidence of incompetence and flawed system. It has all fallen to deaf ears so far. In the meantime Tax Payers are being deceived. This burden on us should be removed.
If the legal system in the UK requires its Judges, QCs, Barristers and Clerks to be qualified to carry out their duties, why then the interpreters who are vital mouthpiece to the cases need no qualifications? Surely, interpreters should be fully qualified and fully vetted in order to carry out their functions.
No one seems to be accountable to this shambles and the Coalition Government seems to be hell bent on this idea. Who is profiting from this contract and who has vested interest in it to keeping it on?
I sincerely hope that this Committee will explore all avenues and look at all the evidence provided by the organizations before it comes to its conclusion.
August 2012