6. Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Carillion and Capita

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:10 pm on 4 July 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 5:10, 4 July 2018

Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I thank all those Members who have brought forward this genuinely interesting debate this afternoon? We concentrate here, quite rightly, on reports produced by our own Assembly committees or by the Welsh Government. Sometimes, however, the issue at stake is so relevant to us that it is worthwhile debating reports prepared for others. Both Carillion and Capita have had a presence here in Wales. The accounts we've heard across the debate can leave no doubt that we should attend carefully to the lessons learned from experiences elsewhere.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I'll have less to say on Capita because the lessons to be drawn from that report have been very well explored here, particularly by Dr Dai Lloyd, who covered much of the ground I would have covered myself. I think we should say, in general, that the report teaches us to beware of the headlong pursuit of unrealisable savings and that the promises by those whose thirst for business outstrips their appetite for the truth should always be looked at very carefully.

Here was a company that, when it took over the contracts of real clinical sensitivity, had neither the staff, nor the knowledge, nor the basic systems in place to discharge their new obligations. Here was a Government that appeared to believe that outsourcing a service was also to absolve itself of its responsibilities to service users and citizens. Lee Waters suggested that it does not have to be that way, but Capita is a cautionary tale showing us how badly things can go wrong.