Taxpayers face massive bill if troubled public contracts firm Capita follows Carillion to the wall, Labour warns
The corporate giant — which has 1,500 staff in Scotland — is feared to be struggling after its shares crashed following a profit warning
TAXPAYERS face a massive bill if troubled public contracts firm Capita follows Carillion to the wall, Labour warned last night.
The corporate giant — which has 1,500 staff in Scotland — is feared to be struggling after its shares crashed following a profit warning.
Labour’s Jackie Baillie said the SNP had handed the firm hundreds of millions of pounds worth of deals.
And last night she accused the SNP of “sleepwalking to another outsourcing crisis”.
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The MSP said: “In the same month as the collapse of Carillion, we have another outsourcing firm on the ropes.
“Capita has been issued with hundreds of millions of pounds of contracts from the SNP since 2013.
“It must review what contracts it outsources or it risks our public services lurching from crisis to crisis.
“We cannot continue with such uncertainty.”
Labour said figures from independent parly researchers showed Capita netted a list of lucrative contracts since 2013.
They include an NHS IT deal in 2014 worth £325million and a similar government contract in 2015 totalling £75million.
It also collects BBC licence fees, handles NHS admin, and provides services to government departments including the MoD.
A spokesman for Economy Secretary Keith Brown accused Labour of scaremongering.
He said: “Capita is solvent and not at immediate risk.
"In any case, contract values don’t equate to any payments which would be required in the unlikely event the company did become insolvent — something Labour should understand.
"They are also guilty of hypocrisy given the cost of Private Finance Initiative deals they signed up to.”
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Last night Capita said it had launched a “multi-year transformation programme” that will “improve cost competitiveness” and “help facilitate our future growth”.
The firm, which has 50,000 UK staff, has announced profits for this year would be up to £130million down on the £400million forecast.
It came a fortnight after contractor Carillion went bust.
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