UK government should end rail outsourcing ‘racket’, says union
Railway leaders should “think afresh” about outsourcing contracts and try to run services better, the rail minister has said, as union research indicated six major private suppliers made £150m in profits last year.Rail unions are campaigning to end the widespread outsourcing of jobs such as cleaning, security and catering, arguing that staff employed by third-party companies have worse conditions and that profits could be reinvested in the railway.Analysis by the RMT union estimated that six of the biggest UK outsourcing facilities management companies in rail – Mitie, OCS, Bidvest Noonan, Churchill, Carlisle and ABM – have profit margins on contracts averaging 11%, aggregating profits of £152m in the past year across the national railway and the London Underground.The RMT said many contracts have clauses passing on extra costs, such as increases to the minimum wage or employers’ national insurance contributions, back to the government – in effect, it says, meaning “the outsourcing firms’ profits are protected at the expense of the taxpayer”.One of the companies, Carlisle Support Services, is ultimately owned by the former peer, Tory donor and tax exile Michael Ashcroft.
Another, Mitie, has paid its chief executive, Phil Bentley, £20.5m over the past two years.Labour promised to bring in “the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation” before the 2024 election.However, while passenger train operations will be nationalised under the reformed Great British Railways (GBR), the government has so far not looked to go further in rail.Carlisle Support Services did not comment but in its annual report it noted: “Whilst train operating companies have been advised that their contracts will transfer over the coming parliamentary term, we are comforted that it is widely accepted that the supply chains … will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
”However, Peter Hendy, the rail minister, said: “The railway is absolutely stuffed full of big and small contracts, all with different terms, all producing real confusion about how we serve customers and passengers better,And I’m strongly in favour of getting individual people to get hold of bits of the railway and run them better for customers and for the economy of the country,”He said he would support GBR “making some real choices about what the best thing to do for customers in the railway is, in a way that hasn’t been done for over 30 years,Including whether things are best outsourced or not,”Lord Hendy said the trade unions “make some interesting points, but it would be for the management of GBR to take that on board and think afresh about how we serve customers best”.
The RMT said it was “a historic opportunity”.Eddie Dempsey, general secretary, said: “Outsourcing on the railway is a racket that needs to be brought to an end by a comprehensive programme of insourcing.Since 2016, contractors have siphoned over £1.6bn out of our railway, including £152m in the last year alone.“This is money meant for staff and services to benefit passengers, not to line the pockets of hedge funds and private equity firms.
They suppress wages and shift costs on to the taxpayer while their directors cash in.“GBR is a huge step forward, but the Labour government must fulfil their manifesto commitments and undertake the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation, including on rail.”A spokesperson for Mitie said: “We are proud to support the UK’s rail network by providing essential services that keep operations running safely, securely and efficiently.“Leveraging our expertise, we bring true innovation to ensure a high-quality service while delivering value for taxpayers.”ABM disputed the figures cited by the RMT but said it was “committed to a collaborative relationship” with the union.
An ABM UK spokesperson said: “Our team members have a vital role in keeping the London Underground clean, and we are proud of the service they offer millions of commuters every day.”OCS, Bidvest Noonan and Churchill were approached for comment.
UK children to get chickenpox vaccine with measles, mumps and rubella jab
Children in the UK are to be immunised against chickenpox at the same time as measles, mumps and rubella.The NHS across the UK’s four home nations will administer a combined vaccine to young children to protect them against all four diseases from Friday.The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab, which has been used since 1988, is being replaced by a combined MMRV vaccine that includes immunisation against chickenpox, also known as varicella.Infants will be offered two doses, at 12 and 18 months, to reduce their risk of catching chickenpox. The first appointments at GP surgeries to receive the vaccine are being held on Friday
The reason for Italy’s ‘demographic winter’ | Letters
The Italian “demographic winter” has a number of causes, but rising male biological infertility is not one (A child is born: Italians celebrate village’s first baby in 30 years, 26 December).A lot of worry about falling sperm counts has been generated by some studies, but a more recent meta‑analysis found, through inclusion of regional controls, an increase in US sperm counts between 1970 and 2018. Sperm counts may be falling in places like the Chinese province of Henan, which has substantial air and water pollution, but there is limited evidence that sperm counts are falling in the developed world.In 2024, the Pew Research Center asked women and men over 50 who never had children why they hadn’t. Around a third (31%) didn’t want them, but more prolific reasons included “it just never happened” (39%) and “didn’t find the right partner” (33%)
Two charities that received £1.1m from Sackler Trust kept anonymous to prevent ‘serious prejudice’
Two charities that received a combined total of more than £1.1m from the British charitable trust run by the Sackler family were kept out of its latest accounts to protect their reputations from “serious prejudice”.The trust, which draws on the Sackler fortune that came out of the US opioid crisis, gave £3.8m to arts, eduction and science bodies in 2024, according to its latest accounts, filed on New Year’s Eve.The largest named recipients – each receiving £250,000 – were Veterans Aid, which tackles homelessness in the ex-service community, and the Belvoir Cricket and Countryside Trust, which works to develop an appreciation for the British countryside and promotes a love of sport, especially cricket
High blood pressure: who is at risk and why UK children are getting it
High blood pressure was long considered a health problem of middle age, but rates are increasing in children and adolescents, with doctors reporting a surge in strokes among people of working age.Hypertension is the medical name for high blood pressure. It arises when blood pressure in the arteries, the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the brain and around the body, is consistently above a healthy level. It is often called a silent killer because it causes damage throughout the body without producing obvious symptoms.Blood pressure is usually measured with a blood pressure monitor, which wraps an inflatable cuff around the arm
Call for routine high blood pressure testing of UK children as cases almost double
Leading doctors have called for a national UK programme to monitor schoolchildren for high blood pressure amid concerns that rising rates in adolescents will increase cases of organ damage, strokes and heart attacks.Rates of high blood pressure have nearly doubled among children in the past 20 years, but no routine testing is performed in the UK, leaving doctors in the dark about the extent of the problem and which children need most help.Identifying teenagers with high blood pressure would enable GPs to intervene early and reduce the risk of organ damage and potentially life-threatening cardiovascular disease as people reach their 30s and 40s, doctors said.“We need to find out how bad the problem is, and that means finding a way to measure blood pressure in children who are still at school,” said Prof Manish Sinha, a consultant paediatric nephrologist at the Evelina London children’s hospital, Guy’s & St Thomas’s foundation hospitals NHS trust.“The fundamental issue is that people don’t recognise that hypertension can be a childhood problem
UK ministers face increased pressure to restrict gambling ads
Ministers will come under mounting pressure to introduce curbs on gambling advertising this year, as MPs and campaigners latch on to polling that indicates widespread public support for tougher restrictions.Policies affecting gambling have been the subject of fierce debate over recent years, leading to stricter regulation of the £12.5bn-a-year sector and higher taxes announced in November’s budget, despite intensive lobbying by the industry.But, while successive governments have brought in measures such as lower stake limits on online slot machines and a statutory levy to fund addiction treatment, gambling advertising has remained largely unaffected.New polling, shared with the Guardian, indicates strong public backing for a much less permissive approach to gambling ads, which have exploded in volume since deregulation by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2005
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