Serco

The Guardian has called Serco 'probably the biggest company you've never heard of'². It has grown in recent years thanks to the ongoing privatisation of public services and outsourcing of government services in the UK.

Serco operates in various sectors:

Transport: Serco manages the Docklands Light Railway³ in London and Great Southern Railways in Australia.⁴ Serco also has a joint venture with NedRailways, the UK arm of Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, to operate passenger trains in the UK: Serco-NedRailways has a 25 year concession for Merseyrail in Liverpool and operates Northern Rail services in the north of England.⁵ Serco will operate the future Dubai Metro.⁶ Serco formerly operated the Copenhagen Metro with Ansaldo STS, until selling its share with effect from January 1 2008.⁷ In addition, Serco Rail Operations operates infrastructure monitoring trains in the UK⁸. Serco also operates speed camera systems throughout the UK and designs, writes & tests the software that controls the Matrix Message Signs, Signals, emergency roadside telephones (SOS) and traffic monitoring on England's motorway network including the National Traffic Control Centre.⁹

Detention: Serco supplies electronic tagging devices for offenders and asylum seekers.¹¹ In Britain, Serco runs four prisons, a Young Offenders Institution and a Secure Training Centre.¹² It also operates two Immigration Removal Centres.¹³¹⁴ Serco is also responsible for transporting and detaining prisoners at several Law Courts across the country.¹⁵ In addition, Serco runs Hunfeld Prison in Germany.¹⁶ In Australia Serco runs Acacia Prison in Western Australia.¹⁷

Defence: Serco holds defence contracts worldwide including the UK Government’s first modern outsourced contract for the operation and maintenance of the UK Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at RAF Fylingdales;¹⁸ contracts are also held for the operation and maintenance of RAF Brize Norton,¹⁹ RAF Halton²⁰ and RAF Northolt²⁰ in the UK and RAF Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic.²⁰ Serco also provides support services to garrisons in Australia.²¹ Serco also manages many aspects of operations at the Defence College of Management and Technology in Shrivenham.²²

Aviation: Serco provides air traffic control services at international airports in Dubai, Bahrain and at some smaller airports in the USA.²³ Since 2004 Serco have also had £5m a year from the US government to manage airports in Iraq.²⁴

Health: Serco provide facilities management services at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital,²⁵ Leicester Royal Infirmary²⁶ and Wishaw Hospital.²⁷

Education: Serco holds a 10 year contract with Bradford City Council to manage and operate the local education authority,²⁸ providing education support services to the City's schools, and similarly manages and operates Walsall²⁹ and Stoke-on-Trent local education authorities.³⁰ Serco is also the provider of a Student information system, Facility, used in schools and colleges in several countries.³¹

Driver's licensing: Serco, through a purpose-made division Serco DES, holds a 10 year, $114 million contract with the Province of Ontario to operate the province's DriveTest driver examination centres. These tests include vision, road, and knowledge tests for all persons seeking to become a licensed automobile driver in the province. ³²

Leisure: Serco operates a number of leisure centres across the UK including the Manchester Aquatics Centre, the aquatic venue for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.³³

Serco also administers a number of publicly funded websites in the UK, including the Business Link website.³⁴

Serco Solutions presently run the IT Infrastructure for the London Borough of Southwark winning the 5 year tender in 2007.³⁵

Serco operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region and North America, but the majority of its turnover still comes from the UK.

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FTSE 250 companies of the United Kingdom

As of 13 October 2008.

Contents

History

Operations

External links

References