A juddering dissonance persists between the Ministry of Justice’s positive assessment of key criminal justice services – outsourced to private companies – and the way those services are experienced by professionals who work on the frontline.
Performance data quoted by the MoJ and companies responsible for escorting and transporting prisoners to court for trial shows ‘prisoner escort contractors deliver over 99.8% of prisoners to court on time’. Of interpreters, another outsourced service, the MoJ says: ‘More than 99% of trials needing interpreters go ahead as scheduled.’
The kindest thing I can say about these assertions is that the MoJ, and the ministers who lead it, are insufficiently curious about the abundant and widespread evidence to the contrary.
Asking criminal defence lawyers if these are problem areas is akin to visiting a fairground stall with a guaranteed prize – every contact elicits a despairing account of routine delays. The situation in the magistrates’ courts is dire. The picture is much better at the Crown courts if prisoners are in custody, say, a mile from court, but in London there is a problem. And transport for juveniles falls short. The situation is grim across England and Wales, confirm trade unions relating the experience of MoJ staff.
Is there omerta around criticism of outsourced services? Ministers are unmoved by evidence that discredits positive numbers. Courts minister Sarah Sackman was not swayed by a Lords committee report that found the poor state of interpreter services threatened the administration of justice. Late delivery of prisoners to court by contractors Serco and GEOAmey is ‘rare’, the MoJ insists.
Fines of up to £625 for each 15-minute delay caused by the late delivery of a prisoner to court can be levied on these companies, the MoJ assures the Gazette. So what penalties have been imposed? We aren’t allowed to know, as ‘sharing the data publicly would harm the PECS [Prisoner Escort and Custody Service] suppliers’ future ability to participate competitively in future commercial activity’. How convenient.
Justice secretary David Lammy has a criminal justice reform programme that partly relies on prison transport and interpreter services being as good as the MoJ’s data suggests they are. Yet it is the unequivocal view of professionals on the frontline of the criminal justice system that MoJ data on those services simply fails to reflect the reality.
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