50 Facts About Serco

Serco Group plc is a British company with headquarters based in Hook, Hampshire, England.

Serco primarily derives income as a contractor for the provision of government services, most prominently in the sectors of health, transport, justice, immigration, space, defence and citizens services.

Serco operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, and North America.

Serco was founded in 1929 as RCA Services Limited, a United Kingdom division of the Radio Corporation of America and initially provided services to the cinema industry.

Serco said the company was suffering from ministers' improved ability at driving a bargain, and claimed that “the Government has got much more adept at writing contracts and transferring risk to the private sector”.

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Serco made a loss of £991 million in 2014, reducing to a loss of £69.

In September 2017, Serco announced that it would be combining its UK and Europe operations.

Serco operates the National Border Targeting Centre for UK Visas and Immigration and provides the carrier gateway, which is the interface between carriers and the agency.

Serco is contracted to the Department for Work and Pensions to provide telephone advice on behalf of DWP to recipients of Support for Mortgage Interest, which ends in April 2018.

In London, Serco operates the London Cycle Hire Scheme for Transport for London and operated the Docklands Light Railway from 1997 until 2014.

Serco has a contract in its own right to operate the Caledonian Sleeper between London and Scotland until 2030.

In 1997 Serco purchased the Railtest business as part of the privatisation of British Rail.

From 1997 until 2004, Serco operated the National Rail Enquiry Service under contract to the Association of Train Operating Companies.

In Scotland, Serco has operated the NorthLink Ferries ferry service since July 2012.

Serco managed the UK's National Physical Laboratory until 2015 and provides IT Services, Industrial Support and Cryogenic Operations Support and Maintenance at CERN.

Serco was part of a consortium running the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory under contract, until October 2013.

Serco is responsible for the contracted-out court escort services in the south-east area .

In Glasgow, in August 2018, it was disclosed that Serco had been planning to evict asylum seekers before their appeal procedure was completed.

Serco confirmed that it was serving a notice of eviction on many tenants causing alarm and lawyers challenged one asylum seeker's eviction at the Scottish Court of Session.

In January 2019, it was reported that Serco had lost the contract to provide housing to asylum seekers in Glasgow.

Freedom of Information request by the Scottish Refugee Council showed that Serco had been charged nearly £3m by the Home Office for repeatedly breaching its contract to house asylum seekers in Glasgow and Northern Ireland.

Serco held defence contracts in 2004, including the UK Government's contract for the maintenance of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at RAF Fylingdales; contracts are held for the operation and maintenance of RAF Brize Norton, RAF Halton, RAF Northolt and RNAS Culdrose in the UK and RAF Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic.

Serco manages many aspects of operations at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in Shrivenham.

Serco was one of three partners in the consortium who managed the Atomic Weapons Establishment until June 2021 when it was taken over by the MOD: in July 2015 the Office for Nuclear Regulation issued an improvement notice to the consortium demanding that it demonstrate that it has a long-term strategy for managing Higher Active radioactive Waste in order to reduce the risk to the public and its employees.

Serco is a major subcontractor to Airbus Defence and Space on the Skynet military communications satellites PFI contract.

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In June 2010 Serco signed a £4 million contract to operate all air traffic control services for Coventry Airport.

Serco provide facilities management services at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary, and Wishaw General Hospital.

Serco said it would stop running Braintree hospital in Essex as it pulled out of managing GP services and large hospitals.

In health services, Serco's failures include the poor handling of pathology labs and fatal errors in patient records.

On 24 October 2017, it was reported that Serco was preparing to buy healthcare contracts from facilities management business Carillion.

In May 2020, Serco accidentally shared the personal email addresses of nearly 300 trainee COVID-19 contact tracers.

Serco held a ten-year contract with Bradford City Council between 2001 and 2011 to manage and operate the local education authority, providing education support services to the city's schools.

Serco similarly manages and operates Walsall and Stoke-on-Trent local education authorities.

Serco is one of Ofsted's three Regional Inspection Service Providers, responsible for school inspections in the English Midlands.

Serco Leisure Operating Ltd works with clients throughout the UK, running gyms, swimming pools, cycle hire schemes and National Sports Centres.

Serco administered the publicly funded UK Business Link website from 2005 until its closure in 2012.

Serco operates recycling and waste collection services for local councils.

Serco has a contract with the City of Chicago, Illinois, to enforce parking meter regulations.

Serco provides air traffic control services at airports and some smaller airports in the United States and Canada.

Serco was heavily criticized for the existence of 'fight clubs' within Mount Eden prison that were not investigated until after they became public knowledge on 16 July 2015 when footage emerged online and was reported by TVNZ.

Serco was ordered to pay $8 million to the New Zealand government as a result of problems at Mount Eden Prison while it was under Serco's management.

In November 1995 Serco commenced a contract to provide transport information services for Transperth and in May 1996, a contract to maintain all of its bus stations.

From 1997 until 2015, Serco owned Great Southern Rail that operated The Ghan, Indian Pacific and The Overland passenger trains.

In Sydney, Serco has operated transport information services for Transport for NSW since 1 July 2010.

The Union of Christmas Island Workers highlighted the systemic failure by Serco to manage the Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre.

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Under Serco, there was an increase of deaths in custody and self-harm in the years leading up to 2013, as well as a deterioration of facilities, leading to the decline of the physical and the mental health of detainees and of staff.

Serco formerly operated the Copenhagen Metro in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Ansaldo STS, until it sold its share with effect on 1 January 2008.

Serco manages the United Nations' Earth observation space programme, the Copernicus Programme.

Serco operates the Dubai Metro and continues to operate the Dubai Tram and the Palm Jumeirah Monorail in Dubai.

Serco provides air traffic control services at international airports in the United Arab Emirates.