Govt Urged To Set Up List Of Language Interpreters

The Ombudsman on Thursday urged the administration to set up a central database of foreign-language interpreters that all government departments can use, to ensure people who cannot speak in either Chinese or English enjoy equal access to public services.

The watchdog said that departments have been relying on a non-governmental organisation to provide language support to ethnic minorities, or hiring qualified, freelance interpreters.

Law enforcement personnel have also had to make their own arrangements for interpretation services since 2018, when the Judiciary Administration decided to stop sharing its list of more than 300 interpreters with other government departments.

“Since their list of registered interpreters is for the use in court proceedings, they found it’s not suitable to take the role of coordinating the interpretation service procurement of other departments,” Ombudsman Winnie Chiu said.

The Ombudsman said these arrangements, without centralised guidance or minimum requirements, would “inevitably become less efficient.”

Chiu urged the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau (CMAB), which is tasked with promoting racial equality, to start a database for all government departments’ use.

“We found that it might not be operationally efficient for different departments to do basically similar things, hence we recommend the CMAB to coordinate and establish a central database of such qualified interpreters for everybody’s use within the government,” she said.

In response, the CMAB said the Centre for Harmony and Enhancement of Ethnic Minority Residents, commissioned by the Home Affairs Department, already offers free and instant telephone interpretation and enquiry services between English and eight other languages.

The bureau said general interpretation services provided by this centre satisfy the needs of most public authorities, but said it will study the Ombudsman’s recommendation.

Separately, the Ombudsman also urged the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to put in place a better warning system to alert the public about the severity of mosquito infestations across the territory.

The watchdog said the way the department releases information now presents an unclear picture, with the public underestimating how serious the problems are in some districts.

Chiu recommended an alert system more akin to those used by the Environmental Protection Department and the Observatory about air quality and UV radiation, which she said the public is familiar with and understands how they should respond.