Robust projection of the values of and need for RPSIs

NRPSI STATEMENT | 6 AUGUST 2019

 NRPSI has today written to the Rt Hon Mr Malthouse MP (Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service), Capita TI, the ESPO and the Yorkshire and Humber Police regarding their responses to a complaint raised by an NRPSI Registrant about the supply of an unqualified interpreter by Capita TI to Trafalgar House Police Station in April 2019.

The letter, sent to the Registrant, who forwarded it to NRPSI in the interests of the general public, compared the National Register of Public Services Interpreters to Capita TI's register of interpreters.

As the not-for-profit, voluntary accreditation, registration and regulatory body for public service interpreting in the UK which has been operating for 25 years, NRPSI is alarmed by this comparison to a register of interpreters recruited for commercial purposes.

Furthermore, in the same letter that made this comparison, it was stated because the interpreter in question had a Czech qualification they were capable of interpreting/translating Slovak owing to these languages being deemed, following a piece of work carried out by the Ministry of Justice in conjunction with Capita TI and a number of expert speakers in both Czech and Slovak, to be 'linguistically linked'.

To clarify, NRPSI has stringent criteria for entry onto the National Register and follows a strict verification process, even for languages considered as ‘rare’.

(http://www.nrpsi.org.uk/downloads/Qualifications_and_Experience_Criteria_for_Entry.pdf).

NRPSI treats individual languages as different and notwithstanding any linguistic links, such as those between French, Italian and Spanish or between Czech and Slovak, ensures individual Registrants on the National Register have the requisite interpreting qualifications for each language.

NRPSI resists the temptation to conflate languages. NRPSI believes it is inappropriate to do so and such action poses a public risk.

Whenever and wherever the NRPSI’s processes are brought forward as evidence, it rigorously defends the right to ensure these processes are represented faithfully and accurately. 

NRPSI believes the solution to ensuring  such problems are not faced in the future and the seeds for miscarriages of justice are not sown is to grant NRPSI statutory status for professional, experienced and qualified public service interpreters.

NRPSI advocates making it mandatory for public services to only engage with accredited, registered and regulated interpreting-practitioners, and wants to ensure interpreters working for public service organisations have been assessed without commercial or political influence. 

Given it is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and has been an independent not-for-profit organisation since 2011, NRPSI believes it is time to make this happen. NRPSI believes it is time to lay the foundations for a stable, professional, regulated support to public service organisations where these organisations can rely on the accredited, registered and regulated interpreters working with them, knowing there is a rigorous complaints and disciplinary process already in place.

NRPSI has written to the Minister for Policing (Rt Hon Mr Malthouse MP), Capita TI, the ESPO and the Yorkshire and Humber Police to this effect.

ENDS