Three UK police forces are reportedly evaluating whether to drop joint plans to outsource 1,100 back office jobs to G4S following its Olympic security staffing debacle.
According to the Guardian, the chief constables of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire police met yesterday and agreed to rethink the move.
It was stated only last month that outsourcing HR, finance and IT services functions would enable the forces to combat a combined £73 million funding shortfall. They committed to working with G4S after being given the go-ahead to assess whether outsourcing was a viable option.
A joint statement said: “Their meeting enabled them to consider the findings of the review of the contract to date and assess how it could meet the complex requirements of the three forces.”
The chief constables would continue the discussion and share their assessment with police authority members at a meeting of the Strategic Alliance Joint Working Group early next week, the statement added.
Any changes to the agreed programme would need to be formally considered in a public forum by each police authority, however.
But any decision to pull out of the deal would be a blow to G4S, which is still reeling from the fallout of its failure to recruit, train and deploy enough security guards for the start of the Olympics next week.
The situation means that the coalition government has been forced to draft in an additional 3,500 troops, many of whom have just returned from tours of duty in Afghanistan, in order to protect the Games’ venues.
The armed forces had already pledged to supply 13,500 personnel for the task, but the last minute additions means that many are reportedly being forced to sleep in chairs in makeshift accommodation.
