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back to article Never mind monitoring dead crims, Ministry of Justice has just palmed Serco another £800m

The Ministry of Justice is to hand over £800m of British taxpayer's dosh to scandal-hit Serco in return for 10 years' worth of outsourced prisoner escort and custody services. Under the deal, Serco will be responsible for the secure transportation of jailbirds between prisons and courts, and for the custody of them while at …

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  1. StewartWhite

    So let me see if I've got this straight - a company defrauds the MoJ and hence the UK taxpayer out of multi-millions and then rather than being barred from being awarded further contracts for a lengthy period is rewarded by being given another contract for further major moolah.

    And this makes sense how?!?

    14 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Connections

      And their CEO's brother happens to be an MP with the conservative party?

      You couldn't make this sh!t up.....

      13 0 Reply
      1. The Pi Man
        Reply Icon

        Re: Connections

        No it’s fine - he’s not standing as an MP in December. Bets on him taking a job at Serco?

        4 0 Reply
      2. katrinab Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Connections

        He was a Rebel Alliance MP until yesterday. Now once again a Tory.

        2 0 Reply
      3. phuzz Silver badge
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        Re: Connections

        Come on now, are you trying to suggest that someone who's granddad was Churchill (not the insurance selling dog), who went to Eton and then Oxford and who's only work experience before becoming an MD was "as a DJ at the London nightclub Annabel's", might possibly only have reached their position through nepotism?

        Some people are so cynical.

        Jokes aside, I'm sure his golf handicap is quite good.

        4 0 Reply
        1. katrinab Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Connections

          Well they were up against G4S for this contract, and one of their shareholders is Philip May's company. Philip May is Theresa May's husband. So if they were employing nepotism in their contract selection, that would narrow it down to at least two candidates, and they would still have to chose other criteria to select the winner.

          1 0 Reply
    2. sbt
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      A quintessential inside job

      Well, they clearly weren't worried about being able to escape justice at an opportune moment with a little help from their "friends".

      Mine's the one with the prison van keys. -->

      4 0 Reply
  2. AdamK

    Reminds me of an old legal aphorism back in my crim defence days: "You have a memory like a Serco magistrates court prisoner transport". Bit long winded and scatalogical but that's lawyers for you.

    0 0 Reply
  3. teebie

    "We are delighted to have been awarded this major contract to provide prisoner escort and custody services for living prisoners, dead prisoners, prisoners who are staying in prison, prisoners who are already at their destination, and prisoners who are nowhere near the country we are operating in"

    2 0 Reply
    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      And to courts that have been shut down.

      2 0 Reply
  4. adam payne

    Serco said it will invest in a fleet of vehicles and an IT upgrade programme, "which we are confident will deliver further improvements to the strong performance and innovation we have already delivered over recent years".

    Strong performance and innovation..wait what? did I miss something here?

    /sarcasm

    2 0 Reply
  5. Claverhouse Silver badge

    Backwards To Soviet Britain !

    Ministry of Justice, like other NuLabour messing-ups of old traditional things, such as the demented Gordon Brown's unwholesome Neo-Soviet attempts to prefix government processes with 'The People's...' --- rather like grinning morticians putting new modern labels on Death --- always reminds me of Iron Curtain and Middle Eastern countries in Eric Ambler entertainments.

    Thank God though we British are incorruptible, unlike they.

    .

    There seem an awful lot of these Ministries and Departments of J. Must say I prefer the old Home Office/Law lords arrangement.

    A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.

    saith Wiki. No kidding...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Justice

    0 0 Reply
  6. EnviableOne

    Stop all this outsourcing

    you know what MoJ should do, invest in a fleet of vehicles and an IT upgrade programme and do this themselves for half the price

    3 0 Reply
  7. Aussie Doc
    Facepalm

    Great sense of humour...

    "...the strong performance and innovation we have already delivered over recent years."

    That made my eyeballs roll right around.

    0 0 Reply
  8. Brighton Stones Protest

    Pirates and Traitors?

    Its corruption gone mad.

    https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18611167.coronavirus-track-trace-pebbles-protest-hove-lawns/

    0 0 Reply

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