71 Victoria St, London SW1H 0XA
The NHS Liaison Network is protesting against the threat, under the Health and Social Care Act, to hand over more and more bits of the Health Service to Capita and other profit-greedy “outsourcing” companies. Join us on Friday 13 July, from 17:30 to 18:30, at the Capita office at 71 Victoria St, London SW1H 0XA.
Capita has long been known in Private Eye as “Crapita” and “the world’s worst outsourcing firm”. But in the neoliberal era, it, like other firms set up to grab juicy contracted-out bits of public services, has boomed. Its turnover increased from £25 million in 1991 to £2.9 billion in 2011.
Its pre-tax profits have risen to £300 million in 2011.
Capita was responsible for the multibillion pound failed/delayed IT project for the NHS and HMRC. It messed up on staff administration services at Leicester Hospitals NHS Trust and the BBC, so that staff details were lost. In 2002, when mandatory CRB-vetting of everyone working with children was brought in, a large number of teachers were temporarily unable to work because Capita’s systems failed: it was so bad that the start of the school year was delayed in some places.
Capita ran the Individual Learning Account, a £290 million scheme intended to give financial support to adult learners – opened in 2000 and then scrapped in 2001 following widespread and massive fraud.
Capita was involved in the near-collapse of court translation services after their acquisition of Applied Language Services.
In December 2010 the Daily Mail reported: The wealthy boss of an outsourcing firm stunned his workers when he complained about being labelled a fat cat, even though he earns thousands a week.
Paul Pindar, chief executive of Capita, was upset by a leaflet handed to him at the company’s London headquarters which claimed he was on a £9.8 million pay and benefits package. Mr Pindar, 51, told workers he was only paid a weekly wage of £14,500.
Staff expressed amazement. One Capita employee said: “We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Here was one of Britain’s highest paid bosses telling people on just above minimum wage that he earns a mere £770,000 a year”.