Interpreter Framework contract fulfillment rate
Dear Ministry of Justice,
My request relates to the provision of Interpreting services to Courts and Tribunals under the Framework contract awarded to Applied language Solutions Ltd. (ALS).
1. For the period 1st February 2012 to 30th September 2012, how many bookings were placed with ALS for interpreting assignments?
2. How many of the bookings described in 1) above were successfully fulfilled by the contractor?
3. How many of the fulfilled bookings described in 2) above were done by linguists assessed as being Tier 1 or Tier 2 as defined by framework contract?
Yours faithfully,
Brendan Pells
Dear Mr Pells,
Please find attached a reply to your Freedom of Information Act request,
our reference 78508.
Yours sincerely,
Interpretation Project Team
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Dear Ministry of Justice,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Ministry of Justice's handling of my FOI request 'Interpreter Framework contract fulfillment rate'.
With respect to part 3 of my request dated 5th October, I am somewhat confused by the assertion that '...I can confirm that MoJ does not hold the information you have requested...' The reason for my confusion is that section J2 of the Language Framework Contract specifies amongst a list of information to be provided by the contractor, '...Face to face: Monthly breakdown of number of assignments per region, per tier, per language, per collaborative partner plus total price..'
Can you please confirm that the Contractor is supplying all of the management information specified in section J2?
In circumstances where a request is made to the contractor for a tier 2 interpreter, but a tier 3 linguist is sent instead - with the agreement of the court or tribunal - is this recorded in management information as an assignment fulfilled at tier 2 or tier 3? In these circumstances, does the contractor receive a payment for supplying a tier 2 linguist, or tier 3?
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/in...
Yours faithfully,
Brendan Pells
Dear Mr Pells,
Please find attached an acknowledgement of your request for internal
review (ref: FOI79064) of your initial Freedom of Information request
(ref: FOI78508). You will receive a response in due course.
Yours sincerely,
Interpretation Project Team
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Dear Mr Pells,
Please find attached an acknowledgement of receipt of your Freedom of
Information Act request, our reference.FOI/79064.
Yours sincerely,
Interpretation Project Team
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Dear Mr Pells,
Further to the acknowledgement sent to you on 6 November, please find
attached a response to your request for internal review, reference
FOI79064.
Yours sincerely,
Interpretation Project
This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
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is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy
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Dear Interpretation Project,
Thank you for your response dated 21st November. In my request for a review I asked for clarification as to how Tier 2 assignments are recorded, in circumstances where the booking is actually fulfilled by a tier 3 linguist. In the response it is stated '...in order to assist you as far as possible, I am answering it within this document...'
As far as I can tell from reading the response in full, my question has not been answered at all, which leads me to believe I did not make my query sufficiently explicit. For this reason, I shall re-phrase the question and provide answer options which a child could understand.
My query starts now;
In the specific circumstances where a request is made for an interpreter booking for which a Tier 2 linguist is considered appropriate, but the contractor provides a Tier 3 linguist (with or without the approval of the client), how is this recorded in MoJ statistics? Is it recorded as a) a fulfilled tier 2 assignment or b) a fulfilled tier 3 assignment or c) don't know.
That is question 1. Question 2 is as follows;
For the same circumstances described in question 1, what payment is made to the contractor for providing a linguist to fulfil the assignment? Is the payment made at a) the rate for a tier 2 assignment or b) the rate for a tier 3 assignment or c) don't know.
Yours sincerely,
Brendan Pells
Thank you for your email. We are currently exeriencing a high volume of correspondance. Please bear with us and we will reply as soon as possible.
Regards,
Interpretation Project Team
Ministry of Justice
This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying
is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
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Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message
could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in
mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message
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monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail
monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be
read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not
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M Lee left an annotation ()
The MoJ says it does not have the data you asked for under 3).
Look at the statistics the MoJ published and look at the management information that ALS is contractually obliged to provide to MoJ under the terms of the FWA (see page 98 of FWA document):
J2. The Contractor will provide management reports through the web based portal. The reports will be capable of importing into Excel and will include but not be limited to the following:
1) Breakdown of available interpreter numbers by region, language, tier and vetting status.
2) Details of complaints received, upheld, timescale for resolution and outcome. ( Per Collaborative Partner)
3) Number of new interpreters added per tier per region.
4) Gaps in availability of languages per Region
5) Report status on performance against collaborative partner KPIs
6) Telephone Interpreting: Monthly breakdown of number of calls, number of minutes, total price. (Per Collaborative Partner)
7) Translation: Monthly breakdown of number of single linguist tasks, number of second linguist proof reads, total price, discounts for translation memory. (Per Collaborative Partner)
8) Transcription: Monthly breakdown of number of tasks and total price (Per Collaborative Partner)
9) British Sign Language/Deaf Blind: Monthly breakdown of number of assignments, assignment costs, and travel costs. (Per Collaborative Partner)
10) Face to Face: Monthly breakdown of number of assignments per region, per tier, per language, per Collaborative partner plus total price.
The information you requested, and which the MoJ denies it holds, is included in point 10 above.
Otherwise, you must conclude that this is yet another aspect of the quality control in the Framework Agreement where the contractor is in breach by not providing the management data to the MoJ.
Given that Tiers 1, 2 & 3 are paid at different rates, how can the MoJ audit whether it was correctly invoiced if it is not in possession of this information?