ABSTRACT
The Scottish Parliament places the mainstreaming of social inclusion at the core of its policies and requires those delivering services to the public to make sure that an equality perspective is built into all their work, planning and research. In the period since the Scotland Act 1998 gave powers to the Scottish Parliament in devolved areas which include economic development, education, housing, justice and health, local government and transport this position has been informed by many strands of research and consultation. The study found that translation, interpreting and communication support (TICS) providers are generally independent and commercially-based. The size of Scotland means that it is possible to conduct fairly comprehensive studies and consultation exercises, whilst the physical challenges of the land and variety of languages and backgrounds encapsulate the challenges for any coherent (TICS) provision. The lack of interpreters in the languages required, or the lack of suitable interpreters, fed into time-scale problems, geographical constraints and all the other issues.
