Nick Buckles has now finished giving evidence to the Home Affairs select committee.
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Summary:
- Nick Buckles says that he will still claim his management fee of £57m despite a £50m loss in their contract.
- Buckles said that he was notified about shortfalls in recruitment at the beginning of July by G4S chief executive David Taylor-Smith.
- G4S will reimburse police and the armed forces for their time and bonuses will be considered.
- Buckles says he signed the security contract because of boost it would provide in the company’s profile.
- Buckles says that he regrets signing the contract but is confident that G4S along with the police and armed forces can deliver a safe and secure Olympic games.
- Buckles confirms that G4S will not be bidding to provide security for the World Cup or the Olympics in Brazil.
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Buckles says that G4S have never had to get assistance for any other events and that he has no intention of going for the security contracts with the World Cup and Olympics in Brazil.
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Buckles stresses that this is a very specific massive events contract very different to how G4S do government outsourcing.
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Buckles: “We are extremely grateful to the military and police for helping us out.”
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Buckles: “We accept 100% responsibility on the basis that we signed the contract.”
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Buckles says he wasn't aware that CPS has written to G4S saying there shortcomings in training given to security guards.
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Talking point of today is Nick Buckles' hair:
@jkaffash: Nick Buckles looks like he could be in an 80s advert proclaimin 'you, too, can have hair like mine'
@andrew_telling: While Nick Buckles' world crumbles around him....he can at least take some comfort in sporting an excellent head of hair
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Horseman-Sewell says there is confusion between people not turning up and those who are part of the shortfall.
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Buckles confirms that they have gone to competing security companies for support.
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Buckles confirms that there is 500 extra in reserve in case there is a problem.
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Buckles remains confident that they can provide a safe and secure Olympics with the police and armed forces.
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Buckles says he would consider bonuses to servicemen along the lines of bonuses being given to bus and tube drivers who have to work during the Olympics.
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Nick Buckles says he doesn't know what "fluent English" is.
This is in response to a media report that quizzed Buckles on the recruitment process where he said that he wasn't sure if his staff spoke fluent English.
He said at the time he didn't know how to respond to the question and didn't know what fluent English was.
The committee cry out "fluent English is what we're speaking right now!"
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Fulbrook points out that police don’t get paid £8.5 an hour. Buckles says that G4S will pay them the full amount and will also pay the military and also for their accommodation.
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Horseman-Sewell confirms that his management fee stands at £57m. Buckles confirms that he will still claim it.
Vaz: That's astonishing
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Profit on the original contract would be £10m and will still be claiming his management fee on the contract. He said he doesn’t know how much his management fee is.
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Vaz: What I can't understand is why don't you just waive the whole fee on this contract. Why are you even claiming any money at all?
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Buckles: We haven’t gone into the full details on how that £50m loss in our contract is going to occur
Buckles said he won't be claiming the shifts that we won't be able to cover.
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Vaz: Shouldn't you have been better at monitoring the situation rather than leave things as they are?
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Buckles tells the committee that there will be a review on the recruitment process.
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Buckles: 100,000 people applied, keeping them tracked all the way through has been a challenge
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Keith Vaz: Do you regret signing the contract?
Buckles: Clearly we regret signing the contract but now we have to deliver it
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Buckles tells the committee that they signed up to the contract as it wuld provide a possible reputational boost from the Olympics.
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Nick Buckles says he will reimburse the police for their costs.
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Buckles: Unlikely that our staff would've come from permanent jobs.
Buckles said that they targetted those who were unemployed and students.
He tells the committee that staff will be paid £8.50 an hour and will be paid for training if they come to work.
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Alun Michael alludes to conversations with David Blunkett who described a “lack of humanity” to G4S workers in Sheffield.
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Alun Michael quizzes Buckles on the structure of G4S, the way the company is run and the way the company treats the people employed with G4S
“This doesn’t sound like a caring and well-managed organisation.”
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"We believe we can cover all venues with support from the police and the military"
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Vaz: Is there going to be a problem with people not turning up for the Olympics?
Vaz asks Buckles if there will be any problems with staff not turning up for events and will they need back-up
Buckles: I don't believe so at the moment
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James Clappison: did you make any assumptions about the number of people who might not turn up.
Buckles: Our no show rate is around 90%-sorry our show rate is 90% and no-show rate is 10%
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Horseman-Sewell: There were no volunteers
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Lorraine Fulbroook quizzes Buckles on the recruitment process.
She makes the point that G4S didn't know if they could deliver 2,000 for the first contract yet still signed a second contract to provide an extra 10,400 security staff.
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Buckles tells the committee that they recruited management staff straight away after signing the contract with LOCOG but didn't start hiring staff until this year.
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Buckles: “We agreed to do the contract because we felt we were the only company able to do it.”
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David Winnick: It’s a humiliating shambles for the company isn’t it?
Buckles: I cannot disagree with you
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Buckles tells the committee that there was a meeting with the Olympic Security board chaired by Charles Farr. Also present were LOCOG, Home Office and Police.
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Ian Horseman Sewell is also giving evidence with Buckles. He is Global Events Specialist for G4S and once remarked that G4S could deliver security for the Australian Olympics.
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Buckles: "The only flag we had was the Deloitte review in April".
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Buckles said he knew about problems on 3 July during the holidays by David Taylor-Smith who informed him about shortfalls on the contract and that the scheduling system hasn't worked.
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Buckles has said he is deeply embarassed and sorry about recent events.
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Vaz has asked why is it that Buckles still has his job.
He responds that he is the best person for the job at the present time.
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Keith Vaz has assured Buckles that Charles Farr, LOCOG, Metropolitan Police and Theresay May have agreed to give evidence to the committee.
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