George Monbiot exposes how Serco and Sitel has promoted teenagers and students employed to do the simplest job in the tracing chain, calling those who have been identified as contacts … Read more
Coronavirus
Leaked emails and texts seen by The Lowdown and other news sites have revealed moves to bolster the clinical tier of the government’s contact-tracing programme with untrained staff from outsourcing … Read more
It appears nothing succeeds more than failure. Serco, one of the two corporations with key contracts to deliver the shambolic UK “test and trace” system has picked up another extension … Read more
Boris Johnson and his chief scientific adviser have admitted to failings in England’s £12bn test-and-trace system as contact-tracing fell to a new low and waiting times for test results soared … Read more
An investigation by The Times has found that medical companies have charged the NHS inflated prices for ventilators. The government paid Excalibur Healthcare Services £135 million to supply 2,700 ventilators, … Read more
HSJ reports that private hospital providers have been asked to apply to a new procurement framework worth up to £10bn, from which NHS organisations will purchase additional capacity for up to … Read more
Sky News has reported that the government is paying individual private sector consultants million-pound wages to work on its test and trace system. Some executives from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) … Read more
The FT reports that the UK government has awarded £10bn worth of contracts related to the coronavirus crisis to private companies since March, mostly without a competitive tender. The research … Read more
MPs have launched legal action over the government’s failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic, as it emerged that it has failed to account … Read more
Sky News reports that more than 1,000 consultants from Deloitte are now working on Test and Trace, according to documents released by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) … Read more
In a crisis we need quick thinking and resourcefulness. There’s no time to explain decisions. That’s the justification for the government by-passing scrutiny and transparency, but revelations about dubious deals … Read more
Almost three in four people think failing private contractors Serco and Sitel should be booted out of their role running so-called “NHS Test and Trace” according to a Survation poll, as … Read more
Digital Health reports figures revealed during a Public Accounts Committee hearing that show that around £25 million is expected to be spent this financial year on the new app, while … Read more
Dido Harding, the Government’s testing czar, has suggested that the daily “moonshot” tests for Covid-19 which will allow people to resume normal life will not be available on the NHS. Instead she … Read more
The coronavirus test and trace system was condemned as “barely functional” today as its tsar admitted that demand was up to four times capacity, while 90% of tests were failing to … Read more
Serco has won an additional £45m to provide COVID test centres, openDemocracy has reported. The deal has not been made public, but provides a major additional role for the controversial … Read more
The Guardian reports that the privately-run laboratories that analyse swabs from people in the community, including care homes, were stretched to capacity even in late August, and were unable to … Read more
The FT reports that Serco has won the most Covid-related government contracts among UK-listed outsourcers. The research by the data provider Tussell shows that the large outsourcing groups, including Serco, … Read more
The Doctors’ Association has criticised the coronavirus testing system as “an utter shambles” after collecting a dossier of cases where the system has led to long journeys and considerable waits … Read more
The UK’s test-and-trace system for coronavirus has a backlog of nearly 200,000 swabs, resulting in samples being sent to laboratories in Italy and Germany as the Government’s privately run system struggles … Read more
