Hoe in Engeland de publieke sector overgenomen wordt door onethische bedrijven, die in veel gevallen zelfs geen belastingen betalen maar wel winst maken.
FalseEconomy: "Research exposes ethical deficit at the heart of companies taking over public sector
In the ongoing campaign against the cuts and privatisation there's been little mention of the environmental and ethical track record of the companies profiting from the selling-off of our public services. Until now.
In a groundbreaking piece of research Ethical Consumer has put 20 of the biggest of these companies under the ethical spotlight, the results of which are presented in the table below (click to enlarge).
Disturbingly our research shows that some of the companies lining up to take a slice of the mushrooming multi-billion pound public service sector are among the most unethical in the UK and many remain largely unknown to the public
We’ve found that the biggest companies that are playing an increasingly important role in running our public services have the bottom rating for many of our ethical and environmental criteria, including environmental reporting, supply chain management, human and workers’ rights and political activity.
The government is now selling our public services to companies seemingly without any scrutiny of a company’s ethical or environmental policies. This apparent policy vacuum challenges the coalition’s stated claim that ‘this will be the greenest government that the UK has seen’. This is significant as it threatens to undermine the progress that the previous government had made in terms of its ethical and environmental purchasing policies.
Another area that gives great cause for concern is the evidence we have uncovered that shows that 13 of the companies we surveyed have subsidiaries in countries that are widely considered to be tax havens, something that is included in our Anti-Social Finance category.
This implies that the companies concerned, including some of biggest names in the outsourcing industry such as BUPA, Capita and Sodexo, are managing their finances in such a way that they may be actively avoiding paying tax here in the UK."
EthicalConsumer: "There are many arguments against the privatisation of public services such as the creation of monopolies and the lack of democratic accountability. However up until now the environmental and ethical track record of the companies that are profiting from the privatisation of public services has gone unnoticed.
The government is now selling our public services to companies seemingly without any scrutiny of a company’s ethical or environmental policies. This apparent policy vacuum challenges the coalition’s stated claim that ‘this will be the greenest government that the UK has seen’. This is significant as it threatens to undermine the progress that the previous government had made in terms of its ethical and environmental purchasing policies."