Archive: Privatisation

How ministers left the prison system on its knees... and got away with it

Countless lives have been destroyed by the prison crisis, but no minister is ever held to account.

Unite: Police Privatisation 999
Unite: Praise for police chief for ruling out privatisation

Unite, Britain's biggest union, has welcomed Derbyshire's chief constable Mick Creedon's decision to rule out the privatisation of police services in Derbyshire.
Unite: Home Affairs committee slams West Midlands and Surrey police privatisation

The Home Affairs committee has backed Unite's concerns over police privatisation
Unite: Local public sector pay bargaining: a blueprint for privatisation

Unite, Britain's biggest union, has branded Chancellor, George Osborne's plans to introduce local public sector pay bargaining as a "blueprint for privatisation".

Burst pipes: Why water privatisation failed

If privatisation was supposed to improve efficiency, it went badly wrong.
Carillion: A story of Britain's fake markets

The truth is that public services can never be run as competitive consumer markets

Hunt's secret NHS plan opens the door to further privatisation

These plans are being pushed through without public consultation or parliamentary scrutiny
Lack of government support after prison fails both individuals and society

A new report has revealed disastrous shortcomings in Chris Grayling's privatised probation system

Comment: Hidden away in the spending review - a plan to sell off Britain's assets

Hidden away in the spending review is a plan to sell off as many of Britain's assets as possible.
It's official: Private prisons cost taxpayer more than state prisons

The MoJ's own stats show publicly-owned prisons do more with less - but will Michael Gove listen?

MoJ paid G4S & Serco millions for electronic tagging during fraud investigation

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) continued to pay millions to G4S and Serco for electronic tagging over a year after the firms were banned from delivering the work, new research has revealed.
Comment: How Britain's aid budget pays for the privatisation of energy in Nigeria

Our aid cash is helping tilt an already uneven playing field further in favour of the rich, entrenching inequality and corporate power.

Probation privatisation looks to be as big a disaster as we thought it was

Grayling's reforms could prove dangerous, with initial reports suggesting a breakdown in communication over offender management
How the cult of the free market sabotaged our public services

The evidence is clear: private firms in public services offer poor value for money. When will we get over our faith in the private sector?

NHS staff are right to go on strike

They go above and beyond for pitiful wages, while millions are spent on privatisation: NHS staff are right to strike
The Canadian-EU trade agreement which could act as a Trojan horse for TTIP

An international treaty which could enforce the privatisation of the NHS might be passed through the backdoor

Rochester reveals a left which lost its voice

The left has allowed itself to be dragged into a right-wing street fight on immigration, as the desperate by-election in Rochester shows people want more
Pick of the Week: Porn, the law and you

Our top stories of the week, for your reading pleasure

Grayling forces through probation sell-off despite safety fears

Minister makes it financially ruinous for Labour to reverse the policy
Officers say public are in danger - so why won't MoJ publish its safety test?

Probation officers warn that the sell-off of the service is putting the public at risk. SO why won't the Ministry of Justice publish its safety tests?

98% of probation workers have no confidence in Chris Grayling

Survey of probation workers reveals staggering level of distrust in the justice secretary and suggests a dangerous lack of morale in the service
Week in Review: Scottish dreams of a new England

Could Scottish independence provide a switch-it-off-and-on-again moment for British democracy?

Grayling's privatisation system comes apart at the seams

Serco-run Doncaster prison condemned by new report, as A4e cancels prison teaching contract to avoid making a loss
Privatisation at any cost: East Coast Main Line sale forced through

Railway has made £1 billion for taxpayers since it was nationalised.

Chaos in probation: Staff 'picked out of a hat' for privatised service

Fears of chaos in the government's probation privatisation programme, as it emerges staff are being selected by literally having their names picked out a hat
Comment: How privatisation killed the 'big society'

Outsourced public services have heaped profits onto large firms but crippled small charities and put users in peril

'Dead hand at the centre': Balls rules out rail nationalisation

Ed Balls effectively rules out rail nationalisation from the Labour manifesto, just hours after it emerged the party's policy supremo complained of the "profound dead hand at the centre" of the party
The MoJ doesn't even know who it has contracts with

How can a government pursing a privatisation agenda have so little knowledge of the contracts it's signed?