{"id":15244,"date":"2018-05-17T16:29:55","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T15:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15244"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:44","slug":"mps-pause-mod-privatisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15244","title":{"rendered":"‘Welcome intervention’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The influential House of Commons Defence select committee has called for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a pause\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 over the possible privatisation of Ministry of Defence (MoD) firefighters.<\/p>\n

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Unite has welcomed the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter to defence secretary Gavin Williamson expressing \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a number of concerns\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 about the outsourcing of the Defence Fire and Rescue Services (DFRS) which provide cover on MoD sites.<\/p>\n

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Unite wrote last month to the select committee outlining to MPs its serious concerns which centre on adequate provision of cover at bases vital for national security should privatisation take place and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098value for money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for the\u00c2\u00a0 taxpayer.<\/p>\n

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It is understood that the two outsourcing giants still in the bidding for the firefighters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contract are Capita and Serco which both have chequered records when it comes to service delivery.<\/p>\n

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The select committee chair Dr Julian Lewis has written to the defence secretary expressing MPs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 concern \u00e2\u20ac\u0098by the apparent lack of progress on the Defence Fire Rescue Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 whose cost is expected to be more than \u00c2\u0141400 million.<\/p>\n

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Dr Lewis wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the light of these delays, recent developments and the record of the remaining bidders, the committee has a number of concerns about the project, and would urge you to pause any decision, so that you can consider whether it should be abandoned.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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In the meantime, the committee has asked Gavin Williamson a set of questions about the proposal that it would like answered by the middle of next month.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe welcome the intervention of the select committee in calling for the defence secretary to institute a pause while the full implications of what is envisaged is forensically analysed,” said Unite national officer for the MoD Jim Kennedy.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis expensive saga has been dragging on for at least nine years and already cost the hard-pressed taxpayer millions of pounds.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPrivatisation of these services at MoD bases raises serious concerns for national security. Our case has been strengthened by the recent collapse of the outsourcing giant Carillion which was not exactly an advertisement for the benefits of privatisation.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite believes that the plug should be pulled on this fractured and flawed privatisation exercise.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite points out\u00c2\u00a0 privatisation will lead to job losses at the same time as local authority fire services have also experienced\u00c2\u00a0 cuts to staff and the closure of fire stations, many of them in rural areas where MoD bases are situated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The influential House of Commons Defence select committee has called for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a pause\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 over the possible privatisation of Ministry of Defence (MoD) firefighters.   Unite has welcomed the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter to defence secretary Gavin Williamson expressing \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a number of concerns\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 about the outsourcing of the Defence Fire and Rescue Services (DFRS) which provide cover on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[144,252],"wps_subtitle":"Unite hails MPs call to pause MoD privatisation","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26184,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15244\/revisions\/26184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}