G4S chief Nick Buckles will face MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee today. Here are some key questions they will want to ask him about the security firm’s handling of staffing for the Olympics:
1. When did you start processing applications from potential staff?
G4S launched its recruitment drive at the end of January, and just days later told the press it had been swamped by 20,000 applications. Ministers say they were repeatedly assured that the firm would overshoot its targets. So why did it take so long to realise that those 20,000 applications were not going to translate into 10,000 staff?
2. When did you realise that you were not going to meet your targets?
Theresa May told MPs yesterday that the Government had only been notified by G4S that it would not meet its targets last Wednesday. MPs will be keen to pin down whether G4S only realised it was behind on that day, or whether it had been aware for weeks that it would not be able to supply sufficient numbers of staff.
3. How much training are the staff you are now recruiting receiving?
The Times revealed at the weekend that dummy explosive devices had mad it past G4S staff in training exercises, while other newspapers reported poor standards of English among recruits. Asked on Saturday whether staff could speak English, Buckles said: ‘I am pretty sure that they can, but I can’t say categorically as I sit here today.’
4. Will you resign? If not, why not?
It won’t just be MPs on the committee wondering whether Buckles can survive this. He told the Telegraph yesterday: ‘I have been here 27 years. I am very committed to staying. It just depends, doesn’t it?’ He is already unpopular with shareholders after the botched takeover of cleaning firm ISS.
5. Tell us about the level of contact you had with the Home Office. How regularly were they monitoring the progress of your recruitment?
Downing Street and the Home Office have insisted that ministers and officials were regularly monitoring G4S’ progress. But MPs will be interested in the level of scrutiny that G4S received, or whether the firm was largely left to get on with it.
One question for MPs to consider is how Parliament can ensure private sector companies taking on big government contracts receive adequate scrutiny. G4S is still in the running for the contract to administer the personal independence payment, which replaces disability living allowance. Commentators on the left such as Polly Toynbee are hailing this debacle as the death knell for outsourcing as a solution. It’s worth remembering that it’s not just the Tories who love outsourcing, though. It was under Labour that G4S and other private sector firms such as Capita and Serco flourished. But there are clearly lessons to be learned about how to ensure these firms are coming up to scratch, and it would be useful for the Home Affairs Select Committee – and other relevant committees – to consider this, too.
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