Watch out: Labour just forced the Tories to reveal these potentially explosive outsourcing papers

Labour won an opposition day motion last night forcing the government to reveal the risks associated with outsourcing firms – and given the financial mess Carillion were in when awarded new contracts, we might be about to see further Tory negligence exposed.

Labour won a vote in Parliament yesterday forcing the Government to release outsourcing companies’ risk assessments to the House Public Accounts Committee, which in turn will release the information into the public domain.

And this isn’t just about Carillion : we may be about to see a whole trove of information showing government negligence over the risks associated with several outsourcing firms released into the public domain.

So, from the risk assessments what can we expect to learn about the companies the government has been outsourcing our public services to?

Jon Trickett, Labour shadow cabinet office minister tweeted last night that some of the companies lined up to replace Carillion, for example, were associated with:

• Accusations of slavery
• Tax evasion
• Blacklisting
• Investigated for bribery
• Mispricing

Mr Trickett told the House of Commons:

“My reaction to that, and I don’t know if it’s unparliamentary or not, is to use three letters: WTF”

Given the government knew Carillion were in dire financial trouble when re-awarding contracts, it will be little surprise to find similarly shocking oversights of outsourcing firms with the release of these risk assessments.

Rebecca Long Bailey MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, commenting on the outcome of the Opposition Day Debate on outsourcing and Carillion, said:

“Today’s vote forces the Government to reveal the risks to the taxpayer and the public as a direct result of outsourcing crucial public services to just a few big companies.

“The Government has consistently point-blank refused to give any clear details about its contingency plans for Carillion’s collapse, which has directly endangered 20,000 UK Carillion employees, thousands of pension holders, and more then 30,000 businesses in its supply chain.

“Labour is calling for the will of the House to be respected with the immediate release of risk assessments and improvement plans to the public accounts committee as soon as possible.”

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington confirmed the Government would release the risk assessments but that commercially sensitive information would be redacted.

But it’s so far unclear when this will happen, Labour MP Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, saying yesterday: “As yet we do not know when the committee will receive this information, nor any details of its contents.”

These risk assessments could be the next major embarrassment for the government, Labour and the Public Accounts Committee must keep up the pressure to get them released.