Heard of SERCO yet?

[slimline66]

Have you heard about the company that runs Britain?
It inspects schools, trains our armed forces, helps protect our borders, maintains our nuclear weapons, runs our trains and operates our prisons.

Most of the public will never have heard of Serco, a FTSE 100 company that does all of the above and more.

Led by South African Chris Hyman, Serco is also making money doing it and today underlined it is proving one of the recession winners. Profits in the first six months of the year - one of the toughest the UK economy has faced for decades - jumped 33pc to £83.4m.

However, Serco's journey into the DNA of Britain's public infrastructure, like those of rival support services companies Capita and Interserve, began before the recession arrived.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... itain.html

http://www.serco.com/

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Serco%22

A mass hunger strike by families detained at Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire has been met with violent assaults on men, women and children by Serco security guards who mange the prison on behalf on the UK Border Agency. The detainees started the hunger strike on Monday and staged a sit-in in the corridor over their inhumane conditions.

A solidarity protest outside Serco's offices in London (22 Hand Court, Holborn, WC1V 6JF) has been called by No Borders London in support of the Yarl's Wood hunger strikers on Friday, 19th June, from 12noon. Activists from the Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) gathered outside government offices in Newcastle on Wednesday to protest against racism and all immigration prisons.

http://london.indymedia.org/search/by_tag/serco

[EnlightenedScot]

Too bad they're not subject to freedom of information laws. I would be very interested to know how many Common Purpose graduates they employ.

The phrase is dropped in this page though http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:rZ ... =firefox-a

And this document makes for interesting reading:

http://www.skillsforjustice.com/website ... 0flyer.pdf

And page 2 of this:

http://www.windsorleadershiptrust.org.u ... 07_850.pdf

Notice Airwave (of Tetra Mast infamy I believe) are also mentioned.

More: http://gtrmancfabians.blogspot.com/2008 ... chive.html

Fabian Christmas Reception
Yesterday I was lucky enough to be in London to attend the Fabian Society Christmas Reception on the House of Commons Terrace. The event was sponsored by Serco who joined the FTSE100 list this week.

[mikdefish]

im from dublin but livin in the uk.. i used to work for a utilities company workin on behalf of dublin city council. and yes ive heard of serco. in dublin there responsible for all traffic camera's and public cctv and instalation of traffic lights and control boxes for lights.. while i was workin for the council serco were contracted to completely overhaul just about every traffic light and traffic system in the city.. didnt think anything of it at the time but now it has struck a chord as to the true intentions of it all. also its serco who are responsible for those nasty little camera vans you see hiding by the side of the road with cams pointing out the back.... mik....

[CheekyCherub]

Slim as ever, many mucho thanks for posting this as my other half works for the rail industry!!! i am going off to research this organisation some more,cheers Slim
hugs
Tigs x

[EnlightenedScot]

im from dublin but livin in the uk.. i used to work for a utilities company workin on behalf of dublin city council. and yes ive heard of serco. in dublin there responsible for all traffic camera's and public cctv and instalation of traffic lights and control boxes for lights.. while i was workin for the council serco were contracted to completely overhaul just about every traffic light and traffic system in the city.. didnt think anything of it at the time but now it has struck a chord as to the true intentions of it all. also its serco who are responsible for those nasty little camera vans you see hiding by the side of the road with cams pointing out the back.... mik....

Yes we have those cameras here in Glasgow. Plus the police CCTV control van is an omnipresent feature in George Square on any warm sunny day. There's never any trouble in the square (except the odd scuffle in the evening after Rangers and Celtic play each other) but all they seem to do is confiscate alcohol from goths and students who are just chilling out on the grass and not doing anyone any harm.

[EnlightenedScot]

Sodexho is another one worth looking into http://uk.sodexo.com/

All kinds of catering and facilities management for a wide range of sectors

Infact there's some about most of these large multi-specialisation "managed services" companies that you can't quite put your finger on and the security industry could probably bear closer inspection as well given the amount of major-player mergers that sector has also seen in recent years.

[slimline66]

They were involved in this scandal back in 2006 and are STILL the Governments "favourite" to GIVE taxpayers money to. Remember, their "financial success" is (mainly) down to the labour of the workers of Britain (tax).

BARCLAYS Bank and top venture capital house 3i fleeced the taxpayer of tens of millions of pounds, 'lining their own pockets' in the construction of a flagship Private Finance Initiative hospital, a powerful committee of MPs said today.

Labelling them the 'unacceptable face of capitalism', Edward Leigh chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee said the consortium which financed and built the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital - Barclays, 3i, and their partners Innisfree, John Laing and Serco - had bamboozled inexperienced executives at the local National Health Service Trust.

Serco, the fifth member of the consortium, is one of the Government's favourite outsourcing groups, running dozens of prison, railway, education and defence contracts.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/artic ... _page_id=2

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ei ... al&spell=1

[emmanualgoldstein]

I found this on the SEC

The guy at the top who owns 2.3% (oleson) is the CEO.

The major shareholder is a company called artisan partnership, who also own artisan partnership holdings. The VP for these two companies happens to be someone called Janet Oleson. I cant find out who owns atrisan but if oyu want to know the companies that the holding company owns - have a look here:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1010643/000119312509173758/d13fhr.txt

I got a look at the Serco Group PLC brochure and they promote themselves as an American defence company. They dont talk about things like "safety cameras" or stuff nope - just plain homeland security for the good old US of A.

So what has surveilance cameras in the UK got to do with American military defence? And who owns the owning company?

[CheekyCherub]

yes they run Northern Trains and also the metrolink in Manchester

[FreeMind]

And I wonder where the members of the current government will end up when they step down at the next election...

Juicy non-exec directorships all round no doubt.....