Industry news

Government plans to privatise three prisons have been ended after outsourcing group Serco, who had been positioned as the leading bidder, faces criminal investigation for fraud.

With the termination of the privatisation plans, the three prisons will now be run by HM Prison Service.

Serco along with G4S are facing investigation for fraudulent behaviour for overcharging on tagging contracts. Serco moved to cooperate with the Serious Fraud Office investigation but its on-going nature have resulted in termination of the prison programme.

The Lord Chancellor and secretary of state for justice, Chris Grayling, who revealed the details of the audit which showed overcharging, said: “The investigations remain ongoing. The impact of the delay and the uncertainty this had created mean that for operational reasons we cannot postpone the outcome of the competition process any further. I have therefore decided that the competition for these prisons will cease and that all three prisons will be managed by HM Prison Service.”

Serious Fraud Office to investigate Serco and G4S

HealthCare.gov, the troubled U.S. government website which has suffered from multiple technical issues, plans to double its capacity by the end of this month according to officials.

The increased capacity is expected to resolve current issues surrounding huge user demand on the site which has resulted in site slowdown and downtime.

The website, which forms part of the governments headline plans to reform the national health care system, was originally designed to handle 50,000 users concurrently, but this target has not been met.

The site now has the capacity to handle just 25,000 users, with critics blaming the issue of politicians managing the project rather than IT professionals.

U.S have imposed a record visa fine on outsourcer

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued warnings to businesses surrounding the protection of data relating to temporary staff.

The ICO warned that temporary staff required the correct data protection training after a series of incidents involving data breaches.

Investigations of the breaches by the ICO concluded that temporary staff with inadequate training had resulted in the compromise of confidential data.

ICO Enforcement Group Manager, Sally Anne Poole, said: “This time of year often coincides with a rise in the number of temporary workers being employed across the UK. However the temporary nature of their employment doesn't absolve employers of their legal responsibilities for making sure people's information is being looked after correctly.”

EU approves over 900 changes to data protection law

US industries strikes out at EU privacy

The Government has given a deadline of autumn 2015 for delivery of smart metering services across the UK by energy companies.

Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said: "By autumn 2015 we expect all major energy suppliers to offer smart metering services”.

She added that the complete rollout should be finalised by 2020, with the program being advertised as a transformational enabler for customers, in changing how they manage their energy usage.

Currently over 100,000 smart meters have been installed, with the expected figure to rise to over 53 million at the end of the project.

Bidders submit offers for UK smart meter rollout

British Gas award £600 million contract to smart meter manufacturer

Fiat appears to have gained ground in negotiation to buy by shares in the Chrysler Group.

Sources close to a valuation of Chrysler, have reported to Bloomberg that the company has been valued at $10 billion, which comes in under original expectations.

Fiat is looking to acquire holdings held by the United Auto Workers (UAW), with the rumoured valuation making these holdings now worth $4.15 billion.

The UAW will now have to decide on whether it will sell to Fiat or move to bidding out to a public offering.

Fiat saw its stock rise by 1.4 per cent at the end of trading last week in Milan, with the company having gained 57 per cent this year.

To celebrate the winners and finalists of The National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs) which took place in late October, we are delighted to share their recognised case studies in the below e-book.

Inside you will find write-ups of the submissions that span across 19 award categories and feature companies such as Xchanging, HMRC, Virgin Media, Infosys, Sitel, Legal & General and many more. The supplement also showcases emerging outsourcing destinations, the best projects by sector and individuals who continue to contribute and dedicate themselves to the outsourcing industry.

Please click here to gain access to the supplement and learn from some of the best and brightest in the sourcing industry.

Three London councils have signed outsourcing contracts for the provision of library and leisure services in the search for savings.

Brent, Ealing and Harrow councils have signed contracts to outsource library, sports and leisure services, with John Laing Integrated Services.

The decision to outsource the services came after plans to create trusts to run them was rejected in favour of putting the service management out for market tender, due to the markets advantage in providing greater competitive pricing.

London council budgets are currently being squeezed, with departments under pressure to create savings, Ealing council alone is looking to achieve a savings target of around £250 million over the 2014/2015 period.

Wales launches National Procurement Service

Public sector procurement facing ‘crisis of confidence’

A survey of NHS heads, commissioned by Perceptive Software, has revealed that the majority of trust heads expect additional government funding in order to meet paperless targets by 2018.

The survey revealed that 80 per cent of heads expected some funding from the government while 60 per cent expected complete funding for the transformation project.

The survey also found a disparity between heads of trusts and IT decision makers, with 54 per cent of the heads of trusts saying they believed the paperless target of 2018 was a realistic goal, compared to less than a fifth of IT decision makers.

NHS trust moves to develop SME procurement framework

Jeremy Stafford, CEO of Serco is to step down as head of Serco operations in UK and Europe.

The announcement comes after a criminal investigation was launched against Serco over allegations of fraud surrounding the delivery of tagging services to the Ministry of Justice.

Stafford will be replaced on a short-term basis by UK and Europe Chief Operating Officer Andrew White.

The resignation of the Serco CEO comes as the outsourcing giant seeks to repair its relationship with the government following the tagging fallout, with Serco banned from any future public sector contracts until the results of a Cabinet Office review are heard.

The European Parliament has approved funding of €7 billion for the development of satellite navigation programs.

The funding will provide resources for projects between 2014 and 2020, with the development of satellite navigation programs by the EU providing significant economic opportunities for businesses as well increased overall accuracy for satellite users.

The satellite programs project is, according to Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani, is expected to deliver around €90 billion to the European economy over the next 20 years.