We call on Lambeth Council to immediately revoke its decision to enter a contract with Serco Group Plc to manage its waste services.

Residents are shocked and angry at this decision.

Lambeth Council and Serco have entered into a six-year contract, with an option to extend by a further 8 years-a deal worth £118m.

Partnership with Serco is huge risk for Lambeth residents and is wrong for the borough in numerous ways.

For Lambeth, with its diverse population and long history of struggles for equality, it is hard to think of a worse company than Serco to be tied to.

A more appropriate provider should be considered. This would include bringing the borough’s waste management ‘in-house.’

The London Borough of Lambeth has its own fleet of waste trucks and could employ all existing staff under a council run contract, with full TUPE rights, in line with the borough’s status as a ‘London Living Wage Employer.’

This would then retain more of the financial benefits of this public spending locally, rather than allowing it to be siphoned off by a huge FTSE 250 company with such a questionable history.

The two main considerations Lambeth claimed  for awarding this contract were ‘cost’ and ‘performance,’ yet Serco have been accused of a catalogue of abuses, fraud and failures.

Any hoped for 'savings' will cost the borough dearly. Profit- driven ‘cost cutting’ by Serco would represent a serious false economy.

This contract must be in breach of the Council’s own ‘Responsible Procurement Policy’.

The problems with Serco are extensive.

1.     Hostile Environment

Questions have been asked about the direct involvement of Serco in the implementation of the government’s ‘hostile environment’ immigration policy which has breached human rights and torn families and communities apart.

In October 2018, Lambeth Council passed a motion on the Windrush scandal and the Government’s 'Hostile Environment'  that committed it to “review the Council’s policies and procedures to ensure the Council supports those affected to the fullest extent possible.”.

2.     Track and Trace

This company has accused of major  failings in relation to HM government’s multi-billion pound “track and trace” system.

3.     Human Rights

Serco employees have been accused of the abuse of migrant women in detention centres, including Yarl’s Wood, the Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire. As well as being accused of allowing significant abuses of detainees, including sexual assaults, Serco has allegedly been involved in an extensive cover-up over this sexual abuse of migrants.

4.     Atomic Waste

Together with its consortium partners, Serco has been implicated in failing to develop a strategy for managing ‘Higher Active’ radioactive waste at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire. (*1)

5.     NHS Privatisation

Serco has been in the spotlight for the role of private corporations in profiting from the privatisation of the NHS and their questionable treatment of employees.

6.     Workers’ Rights

Serco have come under intense criticism from labour unions, for their alleged unwillingness to honour a ‘living wage’ for their employees in the past, including NHS staff, and were named ‘Scrooge employer of the year’ in 2018 by the Unite Union.

7.     Poor Performance and Fraud Allegations

In 2012 Serco Group were contracted by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to deliver the COMPASS project, (services for asylum applicants) in two regions of the UK.

( *2)

This was despite Serco having been fined nearly £7m for previous failings and concerns voiced by leading charities that outsourcing the service had resulted in “squalid, unsafe, slum housing conditions”.(*2)

Between 2010 and 2018, Serco took responsibility for three counts of fraud and two of false accounting .They were fined £6.8m worth of “service credits” between April 2013 and December 2018 for these and other failings(*2)

These are sums deducted from a company’s monthly invoice, when it fails to meet key performance indicators included in its contract. (source 2)

In July 2019, a fine of £19.2m was imposed on Serco for fraud and false accounting over its electronic tagging service for the Ministry of Justice. The company was also ordered to pay the Serious Fraud Office ‘s investigative costs of £3.7 million.

False accounting is a significant risk, because waste collection and disposal is an area with a significant risk of major fraud, especially if tonnages are not reported accurately or waste is disposed of inappropriately.

These are more than sufficient reasons for Lambeth to re-tender its waste management contract.

Sources

(*1) blueandgreentomorrow.com

(*2) Guardian newspapers  2019)