New language-service contracts for courts and tribunals started on 5 October, pitched as the fix for requests the contracted supplier cannot fill. The same lead supplier continues, and the government's own newest figures already show that exact problem at a record high.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. A Ministry of Justice press release dated 5 October 2026 says new language-service contracts starting that day will make the court interpreting service "more resilient" and "reduce the need for off-contract bookings", the backup route used when the contracted supplier cannot fill a request [[1]]. thebigword, described in the same release as the "existing supplier", continues as the primary spoken-language provider [[1]][[2]]. MoJ's own Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly for April to June 2026, published 24 September 2026, eleven days before the announcement, already records off-contract requests at "a new series peak" [[3]]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
A Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service press release published on 5 October 2026 announces that "the Ministry of Justice awarded the contracts following a robust procurement process", covering "spoken language interpreting, British Sign Language (BSL), visual and tactile communication, and independent quality assurance" [[1]]. Four suppliers are named: thebigword continues as primary spoken-language provider, Translate UK becomes "a new additional secondary spoken language supplier", Clarion UK continues for visual and tactile communication, and The Language Shop continues for independent quality assurance [[1]]. The release states the new arrangements "introduce several improvements designed to make the service more resilient and reduce the need for off-contract bookings", including mandatory justice-system induction for interpreters, the ability for interpreters to "opt out of particular types of cases where appropriate", and "independent oversight and risk-based quality assessments" from The Language Shop [[1]]. The companion guidance page, "Language Services", published the same day, repeats the supplier list and links to an Interpreter Qualifications Framework and a complaints route, but names no contract value, no numeric performance target and no review clause for any of the four contracts [[2]].
The figure the press release does not mention
"Off-contract" is not an invented term for this piece. MoJ's own Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly: April to June 2026, an Accredited Official Statistics release published 24 September 2026, defines it directly: "'Off-contract' requests are those which are procured outside of the contracted services where fulfilment cannot be achieved by the supplier" [[3]]. The same release, in its section on language interpreter and translation services, states: "There were 4,088 'off-contract' requests in Q2 2026. This is 24% higher than the previous quarter and 33% higher than the previous year. This also represents a new series peak" [[3]]. The success rate for completed requests, meanwhile, is reported as "96%", a figure the statisticians describe as having "remained broadly unchanged over the previous year" even as completed requests rose 4% to 53,253 [[3]].
That bulletin was published eleven days before the press release announcing the new contracts, and it says so itself: "Reliance on off-contract provision is expected to reduce following implementation of the new language services contracts in October 2026" [[3]]. That is a forecast, not a result. The press release issued afterwards does not cite the 4,088 figure, the "new series peak" description, or the fact that the primary supplier whose contract covers this exact problem, thebigword, is not new at all. It is, in the release's own words, the "existing supplier", continuing "to provide spoken language services in the first instance" [[1]]. The only new spoken-language supplier is Translate UK, brought in as a secondary provider [[1]]. Whatever has changed in the new arrangements, from day one they run on the record-peak trend line, not a clean break from it.
A claim with no number attached
Neither the press release nor the Language Services guidance states by how much off-contract bookings are expected to fall, by when, or what would count as the new arrangements failing to deliver that. There is no stated contract value for any of the four lots and no mention of a review clause [[1]][[2]]. The one public dataset that could hold the contracts to account at that level of detail is Cabinet Office's cross-government KPI data, which the statistics bulletin itself points to: "12 KPIs covering four contract lots, with the same scope as the published official statistics" [[3]]. But the Cabinet Office's own collection page for that data states: "As of the 2024/25 fiscal year, KPI performance data for MOJ is no longer reported separately and is included in the report for all departments" [[4]]. A reader trying to check whether this specific contract improves against its specific targets cannot do so from a MOJ-specific release; the figures are folded into an all-department report.
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the record shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "The new contracts introduce several improvements designed to make the service more resilient and reduce the need for off-contract bookings" [[1]] | MoJ's own statistics, published eleven days earlier: off-contract requests reached "a new series peak" of 4,088 in Q2 2026, "33% higher than the previous year", with the success rate "broadly unchanged" [[3]] | The claimed fix addresses a problem described by the department's own newest figures as accelerating, not improving, right up to the announcement, under a primary supplier contract that continues unchanged |
| "Existing supplier thebigword will continue to provide spoken language services in the first instance" [[1]], framed within an announcement of "new contracts" following "a robust procurement process" | No contract value, numeric target or review clause is stated for any of the four lots [[1]][[2]]; MOJ-specific KPI data "is no longer reported separately" from 2024/25 onwards [[4]] | There is no public figure against which a reader can later check whether the stated aim, reducing off-contract bookings, has actually been met |
Credit where due
The changes described are not nothing. Mandatory justice-system induction for interpreters, the ability to opt out of distressing case types, a named complaints and feedback route, and an independent quality-assurance supplier carrying out "risk-based quality assessments" are concrete process changes, not vague aspiration [[1]][[2]]. They respond to a real and long-documented problem: interpreters working through the outgoing contract arrangement took strike action over pay and conditions in 2024 and 2025, and magistrates have repeatedly flagged failed bookings as a cause of delay. Publishing the underlying Interpreter Qualifications Framework and a specific complaints route, rather than leaving standards unwritten, is also a genuine step toward accountability, even without a numeric target attached to it.
Verdict
Four stars, two documented mistakes. The department is responding to a real problem with specific, checkable process changes for interpreters and users. But it announced those changes without mentioning that its own most recent official statistics, published eleven days earlier, already show the exact metric it says it will improve, off-contract bookings, at a record high under a primary supplier contract that continues unchanged; and it set no public number, target or review clause against which anyone outside government can later check whether that promise was kept.
The star score counts two documented mistakes: first, the press release's claim that the new contracts will "reduce the need for off-contract bookings" is made without acknowledging that MoJ's own Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly for April to June 2026, published 24 September 2026, already recorded those bookings at "a new series peak", up 33% on the year, under the same primary supplier who continues unchanged into the new contracts; second, neither the press release nor the Language Services guidance states a contract value, numeric target or review clause for the claimed improvement, and the one dataset that scores supplier performance at that level, Cabinet Office's KPI data, is "no longer reported separately" for MOJ contracts from the 2024/25 fiscal year onwards. Two falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding about the conduct of any named individual. All four sources below were fetched directly on 12 October 2026; none returned an error.
Sources
- New contracts to improve language services across courts and tribunals, Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service, published 5 October 2026
- Language Services, Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service, published 5 October 2026
- Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly: April to June 2026, Ministry of Justice, published 24 September 2026
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government's most important contracts, Cabinet Office