We are a not-for-profit activist group of interpreters working in the UK courts and tribunals. We are raising £500 to support our 96 colleague interpreters who refuse to work on particular days of each month in protest against the sale of the industry to a greedy corporate business acting as an intermediary between the Ministry of Justice and language professionals in the supply of interpretation services to His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals System.

All colleagues are self-employed and fully rely on the income from their work for their livelihoods. A day of not working means a bill not paid.

Interpreters have voluntarily been withdrawing their services from the system to the detriment of their welfare and financial security since September 2024, and are intent on doing so until they see change to the current contract.

By law, a non-English speaker in a UK court is entitled to interpretation service, whether they are a victim, witness, or a defendant. Try putting yourselves in their shoes when you have a predicament whilst abroad. A trial cannot be effective without an interpreter present. 'Lack of an interpreter' is a common cause of delays in hearings, even where an interpreter is available but unable to accept a job because of a very low pay rate, driving the backlog of court cases up.

To top off the vagaries of a career being a self-employed interpreter, one must mention long overdue payments of thousands of pounds owed to some interpreters by the agency as a result of a failed and ill-fated piece of technology recently introduced. Interpreters are being starved out of the profession they have been trained into and struggling to meet their basic needs as a consequence.

Highly-qualified professional interpreters have been forced to refuse to take assignments offered at the demeaning terms by the agencies, having exhaused all available means of negotiating the terms and conditions.

All funds raised will be used to support interpreter protesters.