Barnet Council forms joint Venture with Capita Symonds

By BABS

Barnet Council today announced that its preferred bidder for the Joint Venture to run
Development and Regulatory Services (DRS) is Capita Symonds, a wholly owned
division of Capita. The contract is worth £275 million over 10 years.

The Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) is appalled that Barnet Council is intending to
award this contract to the same multinational company it has chosen to run Barnet’s New Support
and Customer Services Organisation (NSCSO), worth at least £320 million over 10 years. Together,
the two contracts, worth nearly £600 million – or £1 billion according to the original figures in the
Official Journal of the European Union – would give Capita a virtual monopoly on service
provision in the borough. Unlike the council, Capita can use the excuse of ‘commercial sensitivity’
to avoid being open and transparent in its dealings. Accountability to the taxpayers becomes a
sham, councillors become ciphers, and democracy is eroded.
Recent exposures of Capita’s failings reinforce the view that the council is reckless in handing over
its responsibilities in these contracts. Last week Capita announced it would shed 100 of its existing
staff at a time when it is supposedly going to take on staff from Barnet. It is likely that 400 people
will lose their jobs in Barnet, causing hardship to them and further damage to the local economy.
Neither contract can be signed, however, until the appeal on the decision not to allow Maria Nash’s
request for a judicial review is heard. The judicial review was refused on only a single technical
ground, while Judge Underhill ruled on the substantive issue that Barnet Council had breached its
legal duty to consult residents.
BAPS will continue to support Maria Nash’s legal challenge and to lead residents in fighting
against the mass outsourcing that threatens to devastate our borough, and for the retention of
services in-house.
[ENDS]
Notes for editors
1. The contract for the New Support and Customer Services Organisation (NSCSO), now
said to be worth at least £320 million over 10 years, was advertised in the Official Journal
of the European Union as worth between £600 and £750 million. Adding the last figure to the
undisputed £275 million for the DRS contract brings the total to £1 billion.
2. Maria Nash is not a member of BAPS.
Contact: Barnet Alliance tel: 07534 407703 or 07807 55 6161 – http://barnetalliance.org;
[email protected]; @barnetalliance

This entry was posted on May 21, 2013 at 16:30 and is filed under Front page, Local action, London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.