Public Accounts CommitteeFurther supplementary written evidence from Dr Francis Beresford

Thank you for a masterly grilling on Monday of those involved with the Language Services Contract which helped to expose further the deficits uncovered by the National Audit Office (NAO) report. It is amazing how hard some people find it to admit they have made a mistake!

Though the NAO report generally did an excellent job it did not push Capita/ALS on two key areas where it is failing to meet the requirements of the contract. These are the requirements that:

(1)All Tier 2 interpreters are educated to degree level.

(2)All Tier 2 interpreters have evidence of least 100 hrs prior interpreting experience.

These requirements are particularly important as the new assessment, for what is it worth, only has any validity, even according to its originator Brooke Townsley, if these other parameters are fulfilled and it can only be used for 32 languages anyway.

Capita/ALS has undoubtedly been using many interpreters with only basic language skills and no experience of interpreting and will not have documentary evidence of the requirements above for many of its Tier 2 interpreters. If these failings were publicly exposed and Capita/ALS were obliged to stop using those interpreters who did not fulfil these requirements it is likely that the Contract would fold due to lack of interpreters.

17 October 2012