Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times Capita Translation and Interpreting has met its key performance target since it has been contracted to provide courtroom interpreting services; and how many fines that company has incurred for missing those targets over that period.

The key performance target under the Language Services contract relates to successful completion of service requests for the provision of interpreters. The contract sets out a 98% target completion rate. The success rates for the first six months of the last financial year 2015/16 are 96.4 percent (Q1) and 97.3 percent (Q2). In addition the rate of complaints over this period was at its lowest level at just over 1 per cent.

Service credits can be imposed on Capita in line with the terms of the contract when performance falls below the contractual level of 98% success rate. From the beginning of the contract in January 2012 until September 2015 Capita TI has paid Service Credits on 44 occasions.

We are absolutely committed to further improving performance to ensure a standard of language services that meets the needs of all those who use the service in the justice system.

The contract has delivered significant improvements so far and we now have a system that is robust, sustainable and able to deliver a quality service at an affordable level. Since we introduced a new interpreting contract in 2012 we have spent £38m less on language service fees.