(Belated) G4S News Update // 22nd August - 29th August

G4S run Wolds Prison has clear weaknesses, inspectors find, BBC News, 22nd August 2012: An East Yorkshire jail, run by G4S, has improved inmate safety but still has been unable to tackle high levels of illegal drug trade and poor behaviour.

UK Police forces to consider G4S despite Olympic failure, Reuters, 23rd August 2012: Despite failing to provide sufficient security staff at the Olympic Games, G4S remain a key player in the outsourcing of police services. the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire forces' joint working group has decided to continue co-operation with the multinational security company. (Also covered by the Independent on the 24th August). 

G4S advertising for civilian investigators to work on cases for Warwickshire Police, Coventry Telegraph, 24th August 2012: G4S has started to act as a recruitment agency for the Warwickshire Police force, advertising for civilian investigators to assist detectives by taking statements and retrieving CCTV footage. 

Homes for asylum-seekers present new crisis for G4S, The Independent, 25th August 2012: G4S' subcontractors have until the 2nd November to find new homes for 1,200 asylum seekers now being housed in Yorkshire and Humberside. Transition moves were meant to take place from June onwards, but most people still haven't moved yet. 

G4S leaves refugees in limbo, Inside Housing, 28th August 2012: Inside Housing covers the fact that hundreds of asylum seekers face uncertain futures because a private company (G4S) is struggling to find suitable housing. 

G4S confirm £50m hit on Olympics security contract, The Guardian, 29th August 2012: G4S reported pre-tax profits of £61m for the first half, down from £151m in the first six months of 2011, with the drop in profits accounted for by the Olympic security fiasco. Further coverage found in pretty much all newspapers, with Nick Buckles claiming that he needs to restore investor and shareholder faith in the company. 

G4S News Update // 16 - 22nd July

I hope you've all been enjoying the amount of press G4S have been getting over the last few weeks! Here's a little summary of the key stories from the last week:

G4S shares plummet after Olympic contract failures, Reuters, 16th July 2012: After G4S completely cock-up Olympic Security, damage is seen in the stock market. Shares in G4S fell to the lowest level in more than six months.

Nick Buckles' hero is Margaret Thatcher, The Guardian, 17th July 2012: The Guardian comments on the New Statesman's republication of an interview with G4S CEO Nick Buckles. His economic advice for the UK government goes as follows: "To continue to focus on traditional Tory values around encouraging a meritocracy and inspiring value creation." Lovely. 

G4S Olympic Fiasco: the people pipeline, Open Democracy, 17th July 2012: Another excellent piece from Clare Sambrook on the affect of G4S' failures with Olympic security on the army and the police. 

G4S look for new PR manager with 'personal credibility', Political Scrapbook, 18th July 2012: After the complete PR disaster around Olympic security, G4S post an advert on Linkedin for a new PR manager. Ideal candidates will have "personal credibility" and the capacity to work with crisis management…

Nick Buckles admits that Olympic failure was a "humiliating shambles", TIME, 18th July 2012: On the day of Nick Buckles and Ian Horseman Sewell's appearance in front of a Home Affairs Select Committee, news about G4S' security shortfall went global. Coverage was seen in TIME, the Wall Street Journal and even Fox News. 

Ed Miliband states that G4S failure is a "warning sign" for police privatisation, Politics.co.uk, 19th July 2012: Read Ed Miliband's speech in full here. 

Police take over Glasgow security from G4S, The Guardian, 21st July 2012: Strathclyde police said on Friday that they were taking over responsibility for security at Olympic venues in Glasgow due to serious concerns over G4S' capacity to provide sufficient security staff. 

Labour MP Keith Vaz promises to closely monitor the G4S deal with Lincolnshire Police, BBC News, 21st July 2012: This potentially lucrative deal for G4S is set to be closely monitored by the Home Affairs Select Committee. 

G4S planning to monopolise on new outsourcing deals with UK prisons, The Guardian, 22nd July 2012: Despite the Olympic catastrophe, G4S are still bidding for the contracts to manage 5 new prisons, in deals that could amount to more than £2bn. 

Update: Nick Buckles, G4S Security Boss, apologies for Olympic failure

Humiliation does force people into doing some unforeseeable things. After G4S' initial refusal to give a statement  about their security shortages at the Olympic Games, today's press was littered with a flimsy apology from G4S' Security Boss, Nick Buckles. Here's a short extract:

"I began to know it was going wrong eight or nine days ago... Basically we are recruiting a large number of people and they are all working through a process of interview, two or three different degrees of training, licensing and accreditation.[...] It is only when you get closer to the Games, you realise that the number is not as high as you expect."

So, eight or nine days ago, Nick Buckles got wind of the fact that his own company could only provide a fraction of the security guards it was contracted to supply. Eight days ago was the 6th of July - the same day that Ian Horseman Sewell, managing director of G4S Global Events, told Reuters that G4S were gearing up for securing even more mega-contracts with other international events in 2012:

"We are keen to pursue events all over the globe and we do have the scale to do more than one thing at once. We are delivering a London Olympics now [and] I would certainly hope that we will be making at least one announcement in the rest of this year about other major overseas events that we have been successful with."

So either G4S' internal communications are so poor that information about this PR nightmare did not reach their press office in time (despite all their PR work done in house), or G4S' senior staff thought they may be able to crawl their way out of this mess. Unfortunately, no amount of spin or even the attempted coercion of ex-police officers to join their ranks (see this Guardian article) was able to paint over the cracks of this ridiculous affair. In Nick Buckle's own words, "we are very, very disappointed", but we're not surprised.

Nick Buckles, as seen on BBC News (14 July 2012)

G4S News Update // 25th June - 1st July

After a big couple of weeks regarding G4S news, including renewed interest from some major papers, we're back to a few familiar themes...

EVER MORE concerns over G4S Olympic Security, ITV, 27th June 2012: ITV's Keir Simmons on security breaches among hastily-trained security staff at London's Olympic Park

UK police forces mull further privatisation, and G4S control of policing, Reuters, 28th June 2012: The company's seemingly unstoppable infiltration of Britain's police forces continues, with Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire forces set to follow Lincolnshire's lead

G4S partly to blame for suicide in private prison, The Independent, 29th June 2012: More general incompetence- this time at Parc prison, where inspectors found "chaos and crisis" within the healthcare unit shortly after Shaun Beasley's death, which they said was "foreseeable and preventable"