MoJ Contractor Beats Buzzer on 98% Interpreting Target

Adding another chapter to the UK interpretation contract saga, Capita TI finally hit its (stretch) performance target of 98% for the supply of court interpreters to the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The London-based language service provider has been under fire, almost since the beginning of its contract with the MoJ in January 2012, as covered by Slator.

Capita TI has received so much heat that, in the MoJ’s latest call for tender, it decided to bid only on the presumably less challenging “written translation and transcription” lot of the new contract.

On April 21, 2016, the MoJ released its latest statistics on “face-to-face language interpreter and translation services” supplied by Capita TI to its courts and tribunals from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015.

In Q4 2015, Capita TI was able to supply a court interpreter 98% of the time, its highest rating since the contract began in January 2012―and the exact target stipulated in Capita TI’s current contract with the MoJ that ends October 2016.

Capita TI’s success rate in supplying court interpreters has steadily increased from 90% in 2013 to 95% in 2014 and, finally, 97% for all of 2015. Its numbers have gone consistently up 1% during the last three quarters, posting a 97% success rate in Q3 2015 after hitting only 96% in Q2 2015.

The MoJ also reported one interesting bit of data. There was an overall decrease of 5% from 2013 to 2015 in the service requests completed by Capita TI through the web-based request system it provides the MoJ.

Rather than being a performance issue, however, “the main driver of the decrease was fewer requests from tribunals,” according to the MoJ bulletin. As a result, completed language service requests have steadily declined, from 162,300 in 2013 to 160,600 in 2014 to, most recently, 153,500 in 2015.

The bulletin also noted the downward trend in complaints since 2013, when 6,600 complaints were posted. This dropped to 2,900 in 2014 and 2,100 in 2015. The most common cause for complaint in 2015? “No interpreter available,” which made up 30% of all complaints.

The next MoJ interpreter statistics bulletin, which will cover Q1 2016, will be released in July.