Whitehall can't scrutinise over £20 billion of outsourcing contracts

Two thirds of the £35 billion worth of government contracts held by private companies can't be scrutinised properly by Whitehall, reports The Guardian. The figures come from a National Audit Office report published today which surveyed government contracts worth more than £1 million. It found that only 31 per cent of contracts have a clause allowing the government to access data on profit margins. 

The news comes in the wake of analysis of transparency data carried out by the Centre revealing that the government is still paying G4S and Serco millions for electronic monitoring equipment, despite having lost the contracts to run the service after they were found to be overcharging.