SERCO’S payment of dividends to shareholders was branded an “outrage” today after the firm reported bumper profits partly derived from its taxpayer-funded Covid test-and-trace scheme.
Dividends totalling £17 million will go to shareholders in the private outsourcing giant in its first such payouts for seven years.
Serco chief executive Rupert Soames said that gains from coronavirus-related contracts amounted to just 1 per cent of the company’s profits, but he admitted that they added £350m in revenue.
TUC passes motion urging ‘all public-sector unions to join a united campaign’ and ‘to plan for co-ordinated industrial action’ if needed
The Labour government must deliver on its commitment to bring back privatised services into the public sector. This not only saves money but also creates accountability and generates wider social benefits, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP
Long-term underfunding and state neglect, while simultaneously probation services have been undermined, have intensified the prison crises, argues SOLOMON HUGHES


