National media cover our research on tagging contracts
You might have noticed that our work has been getting some media coverage recently. An analysis of government spending data by our Research and Policy Assistant, Matt Ford, published on 25 June, was picked up by a number of news outlets.
The analysis found that G4S and Serco are still being paid millions for providing electronic tagging equipment to the Ministry of Justice, despite being under criminal investigation for overcharging when they ran the contracts.
The Guardian made the story their page two lead last Thursday, and Politics.co.uk and Sputnik News also covered it.
The media coverage prompted Liz McInnes, MP for Heyward and Middleton, to ask the former justice secretary Chris Grayling about it at business questions in the House of Commons. His response was less than illuminating:
Here's Liz McInnes tweeting about it:
Government still paying G4S and Serco millions for tagging despite ban http://t.co/P1M8YRgNgz Just asked the Minister about this - no answer
— Liz McInnes (@LizMcInnesMP) June 25, 2015
The analysis forms part of our fourth UK Justice Policy Review, released on 29 June, which tracks year on year trends in criminal justice expenditure, staffing and caseloads, as well as analysis of notable criminal justice policy developments. The report made the front page of Monday's Morning Star, which focused on other parts of the spending analysis, as well as data on harms in prison from this year's special focus section.
Here's what people on Twitter had to say about the electronic tagging story:
How is that G4S & Serco are still getting our millions for tagging whilst being investigated for fraud? http://t.co/N5OgESICnQ
— Frances Crook (@francescrook) June 25, 2015
Market failure: How can you have competition in public services when no companies can afford to take part? http://t.co/3Ri6O9KPWp
— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) June 25, 2015
Still getting away with it? | Government still paying G4S and Serco millions for tagging despite ban - http://t.co/W1Af2gMquW
— Unite the union (@unitetheunion) June 25, 2015
.@Politics_co_uk Did G4s ever get the go-ahead for supplying Govt with lie detectors? #irony http://t.co/swePVcPw5Q
— jolly_angelina (@jolly_angelina) June 25, 2015