Online Interpreting Booking Policy

InSignLanguage Ltd · Document code ISL-LEG-B08 · Annex to the Terms and Conditions of Service (ISL-LEG-B01) · Governing law: England & Wales

Version 1.1 · Effective 2 September 2026 · Reviewed annually.

Read with: ISL-LEG-F-F Remote Interpreting Policy · ISL-LEG-B07 Face-to-Face Interpreting · ISL-LEG-B11 Recording and Broadcast · ISL-LEG-F-I Cancellation and No-Show Schedule

1. What this policy covers

This policy governs every online interpreting booking made through our booking calendar - twelve services, being the same four staffing tiers as in-person work across the same three time bands.

It covers the commercial terms of booking. The standards governing how remote interpreting is delivered - when we will decline to work remotely at all, the technical minimum, and what happens when a connection degrades - are in the Remote Interpreting Policy (ISL-LEG-F-F). Read both.

2. Delivered remotely, to a standard

Every session is delivered remotely by a named, registered interpreter working to our own standards and to ASLI's best-practice guidance for video interpreting: preparation before the day, what the interpreter must be able to see and hear, pacing and turn-taking, rest breaks, and when a second interpreter is required.

This is not an on-demand video line. You are not taking whoever answers. Your interpreter is booked for your meeting, has read your material beforehand, and is named to you before the day. ASLI's guidance draws exactly that distinction, and it is the difference between access and a lottery.

Remote is not a lighter version of the work. A video link removes depth, peripheral vision and the natural turn-taking cues of a room, so the interpreter is working harder to read less. The guidance exists because of what the link takes away, and the working practices are what put it back.

3. The four staffing tiers

Interpreting is staffed in one of four ways. Which one your assignment needs is our judgement, not yours to work out - tell us what the assignment is and we confirm the staffing.

A Registered Sign Language Interpreter (RSLI) holds full registration with the NRCPD. A Trainee Sign Language Interpreter (TSLI) is also on the NRCPD register - qualified to interpret, working towards full registration, bound by the same code of conduct, and carrying their own indemnity insurance. A trainee is not an unqualified stand-in. Booking one is how the profession replaces itself, and it costs 15% less.

One interpreter can sustain a conversation between two people. Beyond that - a programme, several speakers, an audience - the interpreting has to run without a break in it, and that takes a pair. Interpreting accuracy is known to fall away after roughly thirty minutes of continuous work. With one interpreter, rest breaks are the only safeguard, and everything stops while they are taken. With two, the safeguard runs continuously and your meeting does not pause for it.

The two change the lead between them at intervals they agree. The one not leading is still working - tracking names and figures, feeding terminology, correcting in real time. Neither is a spare, and the fee covers both. We name both to you before the day.

In a mixed pair the Registered interpreter leads and carries responsibility for the assignment. If the Registered interpreter cannot attend we do not proceed with two trainees: we replace them, or you cancel free.

3.1 What a trainee is not booked for

We do not allocate a trainee - alone or as half of a mixed pair - where the outcome turns on the interpreting being right first time. These go to Registered interpreters:

• health or treatment - diagnosis, consent, capacity, mental health

• money, job or livelihood - disciplinary, grievance, tribunal, benefits

• liberty or legal position - police, court, hearing, legal advice

• a child, or an adult at risk

• specialist or technical content running throughout

• anything recorded or broadcast

• any assignment where the Deaf person has asked for a Registered interpreter

Tell us what the assignment is and we make that judgement before we confirm. If it needs a Registered interpreter we say so and re-quote - you take that price or cancel at no cost. We would rather lose the booking than place a trainee where they should not be.

Planned online work is where the profession expects trainees to build. ASLI's guidance identifies pre-booked online settings as appropriate for regulated trainee interpreters, with the work matched to their skill level. Matching it is our job, not yours.

4. When we work, and how your booking is confirmed

This is the one thing that differs by band, and it matters more than the price. We hold interpreters on shift for online work during weekday hours. Outside those hours we do not.

Weekdays, 09:00 to 17:00. Confirmed the moment you book. A date, not a request under consideration - because an on-shift interpreter covers it. Bookings of two hours, three hours, or a full day of six, seven or eight hours.

Evenings, 17:00 to 22:00. A request, not an instant booking. We source your interpreter individually and confirm once they have accepted. Bookings of two, three, four or five hours, finishing by 22:00.

Weekends, Saturday and Sunday 09:00 to 17:00. A request, not an instant booking, sourced the same way. Bookings of two hours, three hours, or a full day.

The out-of-hours model is deliberate. We find the interpreter, they accept the work, and then we confirm to you. You will never hold a confirmation for an evening or a weekend nobody has agreed to cover.

Evening and weekend work is unsocial hours and costs more than the weekday equivalent, at the same rates as in-person work. The rate applies to the whole booking, not to the part after 17:00.

5. Booking, and how much notice we need

Book at least 14 days ahead - a fortnight, not a month. There is no venue to check, no travel to arrange and nobody crossing the country, so online can move faster than in-person work. If your date is sooner, ask anyway.

Evening and weekend cover is scarce, and two interpreters free on the same evening is the scarcest booking there is. A fortnight is what makes it findable.

The booking form requires a link or a file. It will not submit without one. Interpreters prepare from that material, and an interpreter who has not seen the agenda, the slide deck or the names is working harder to produce something less accurate. In a pair, both prepare from it.

Tell us the setting and the subject. Personal, legal and medical work must be identified at the point of booking.

6. The meeting is yours to run

You host. Tell us the platform - Teams, Zoom, Google Meet or another - and send the joining link with your booking. If you would rather we set up a Teams link, ask. There is nothing to install and nothing to buy.

If the link changes, send the new one at once.

What the interpreter needs in order to work:

• camera on for anyone speaking, and for every Deaf participant throughout

• the interpreter pinned or spotlighted for the Deaf participant, or the Deaf participant able to control that themselves

• one speaker at a time, with a chair managing turn-taking

• anything shared on screen sent to us as a file or a link as well - a shared screen cannot be read alongside an interpreter

• both interpreters admitted where a pair is booked; a waiting room that holds one of them breaks the handover

The technical minimum you are asked to provide - bandwidth, camera height, lighting, audio, a private space and an agreed fallback - is set out in full in the Remote Interpreting Policy (ISL-LEG-F-F).

The interpreter joins early to test sound and video. If the connection, the sound or the sightline degrades to the point where they cannot work accurately, they will say so and the session pauses.

7. Breaks

An interpreter working continuously needs fifteen minutes' rest for every sixty minutes of interpreting. Changing the lead in a pair is not a break - both interpreters still need rest away from the work. Expect a rest break in any half day and a lunch break on a full day.

Online is more tiring, not less. Because remote work is more fatiguing, we will advise a pair at a shorter duration than we would for the same assignment in a room, and the interpreter's judgement on that is decisive.

8. What a day means, and what it costs

A full day is six hours of interpreting. Beyond six hours the hourly rate applies: £85 for a Registered interpreter and £72.25 for a trainee on weekdays; £127.50 and £108.50 at evenings and weekends. We assess every booking. Where a long day needs a second interpreter - because of its content, its setting or how it runs - we tell you before the day and re-quote as co-worked support; you accept that price or cancel at no cost. We never deliver a co-worked assignment at the single-interpreter price. All prices include VAT.

Prices match the equivalent in-person service exactly, at every tier and every band. That is deliberate. What you save online is the travel - no mileage, no rail fares, no travel time, and no geography deciding who we can send. Nothing is lost to a delayed train.

It also widens the choice of interpreter. In person your options are whoever can reach you. Online they are whoever is right for the assignment - a particular specialism, or the same interpreter a Deaf colleague already knows and works well with.

8.1 One-to-One RSLI Online

Weekdays. From £360 for two hours to £870 for a full day.

Evenings. £540 for two hours, £615 for three, £742.50 for four, £870 for a full evening.

Weekends. From £540 for two hours to £1,305 for a full day.

8.2 Co-worked RSLI Online

Weekdays. From £720 for two hours to £1,740 for a full day.

Evenings. £1,080 for two hours, £1,230 for three, £1,485 for four, £1,740 for a full evening.

Weekends. From £1,080 for two hours to £2,610 for a full day.

8.3 One-to-One TSLI Online

Weekdays. From £306 for two hours to £739.50 for a full day.

Evenings. £459 for two hours, £522.75 for three, £631.25 for four, £739.75 for a full evening.

Weekends. From £459 for two hours to £1,109.50 for a full day.

8.4 Co-worked RSLI and TSLI Online

Weekdays. From £666 for two hours to £1,609.50 for a full day.

Evenings. £999 for two hours, £1,137.75 for three, £1,373.75 for four, £1,609.75 for a full evening.

Weekends. From £999 for two hours to £2,414.50 for a full day.

9. Your interpreters

Every interpreter we allocate is on the NRCPD register, bound by its code of conduct including confidentiality, and carries their own indemnity insurance. We name your interpreter or interpreters to you before the day, and we tell you if one of them is a trainee. You always know who is coming and what they hold.

10. Recording

Platform recording is recording, and so is automatic transcription. Both capture the interpreter. Leave them off unless recording has been agreed.

Tell us at booking if any part will be recorded. Saying yes on the form is not permission: it needs the interpreter's agreement, it is confirmed in writing, and it costs £550 for a full day or £275 for anything shorter. Where a pair is booked, both interpreters must agree.

Trainee and mixed-pair services are not available for recorded or broadcast work at all - that needs Registered interpreters. The full position is in ISL-LEG-B11.

11. No travel, ever

There is no journey, so there is no travel charge, no mileage and no expenses on an online booking. The travel and expenses provisions that apply to in-person work (ISL-LEG-B09 and ISL-LEG-B10) do not apply here and never will.

12. Paying, cancelling and rescheduling

There is nothing to pay when you book. We invoice after the service has been delivered. If you would rather pay in advance, tell us.

Cancel or reschedule free of charge up to 7 days before the start. Inside seven days the booking stands and is charged in full. If nobody joins, or the link does not work and we cannot reach you, it is charged in full.

An interpreter is not obliged to wait more than fifteen minutes past the agreed start, and a late start does not extend the finish.

The Cancellation and No-Show Schedule (ISL-LEG-F-I) is the operative document and prevails on detail. Consumers keep their statutory rights in full - see ISL-LEG-B02. If we cancel, we tell you as soon as we can and do not charge.

Cross-references: ISL-LEG-B01 Terms and Conditions of Service · ISL-LEG-B02 Consumer Booking Addendum · ISL-LEG-B07 Face-to-Face Interpreting · ISL-LEG-B11 Recording and Broadcast · ISL-LEG-F-D Service Level Agreement · ISL-LEG-F-F Remote Interpreting Policy · ISL-LEG-F-I Cancellation and No-Show Schedule

InSignLanguage Ltd · 26 Domum Road, Portsmouth PO2 0QZ · Company number 10943637 · VAT registration number GB 298 6629 31 · ICO registration ZC163713