6 The Linguist Vol/55 No/6 2016
www.ciol.org.uk
NEWS & EDITORIAL
Baroness Coussins raises some important concerns
Brexit plea to the Lords
As a Vice-President of the Chartered Institute
of Linguists (CIOL), Baroness Coussins
takes a great interest in issues relating to
translation and interpreting. On 14 July she
gave a speech in the House of Lords on the
risks Brexit poses to the existing right to
court interpreters and translators. These
rights are enshrined in the 2010 European
Directive on the Right to Interpretation and
Translation in Criminal Proceedings. Leaving
the European Union with a "bonfire" of EU
regulations could leave the UK with no legal
provision for these rights.
Armed with key facts and figures from
both the CIOL and the NRPSI (National
Register of Public Service Interpreters),
Baroness Coussins impressed upon the
government that these are not only
important human rights, but that their
dilution or abandonment risks serious
miscarriages of justice, quite apart from
creating unnecessary costs to the courts, as
proven in cases where current arrangements
fall short.
The Minister replying for government
stated that these issues would "be taken
into account". It is vital that such concerns
are aired in Parliament; part of the role of
the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)
on Modern Languages is to identify and
raise them.
This particular issue was one of four key
points made by the APPG in its 'Brexit
and Languages' checklist for government
negotiators and officials, launched on
17 October. The document also calls for
guaranteed residency status for EU
nationals now and in the future; continued
participation in Erasmus+; and a post-Brexit
plan in education, business and the civil
service, to ensure the UK produces sufficient
linguists to meet its future requirements as
a leader in global free trade and on the
international stage.
The prospect of Brexit naturally worries
many linguists who have active links with
European countries, and it certainly threatens
crucial activities, as listed in the document.
However the APPG is trying to show that
Brexit doesn't necessarily mean bad news
for languages. In many ways there is a
unique opportunity now for the UK to take
languages seriously.
There is new pressure to produce home-
grown linguists (for instance if the UK can
no longer depend on EU officials for
multilingual negotiations, or seeks to expand
its exports markets) and legal issues, such as
the EU Directive discussed above, are
bringing language policy into relief. The
APPG will be using 'Brexit and Languages'
to highlight language policy across
government departments.
To read 'Brexit and Languages', see
http://bit.ly/2fiZlJW. Watch Baroness
Coussins's speech at http://bit.ly/Cous14Jul.
Philip Harding-Esch works on
behalf of the British Council to
support the APPG on Modern Languages.
TL
