Global Solutions Ltd.: Products/Projects

Healthcare

In 2003 GSL began entering LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) schemes. LIFT is a new form of PPP in the health sector by which the provision and maintenance of primary health and social care facilities, such as GPs' surgeries, is financed by private companies. LIFT schemes are overseen by Partnerships for Health, a new company created specifically for the purpose by Partenerships UK and the Department of Health. In 2003, there were 42 LIFT schemes in the country, of which GSL had four contracts. GSL has stated its intention to grow in this area1: from this initial involvement, 'opportunities should arise to extend the relationship to other NHS and local government bodies and continue to grow its service based income'.

GSL has a thirty-year contract to design, build and operate facilities at the Nuffield Orthapaedic Clinic in Oxford. It also has a five year contract for non-emergency Patient Transport Services (PTS) with the Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Hospital Trust. GSL has said it hopes to expand this service.

Custodial

GSL runs three prisons in the UK: HMP Wolds in East Yorkshire, the first privatised prison in the UK, and two PFI contracts, HMP Altcourse in Liverpool and HMP Rye Hill in Warwickshire.

It also runs two 'secure training centres' (STCs), i.e. jails, for young offenders through subsidiary Rebound ECD: Medway in Kent and Rainsbrook on the Northamptonshire/Warwickshire border.2

GSL runs immigration detention centres Campsfield in Oxfordshire, Oakington in Cambridge, Tinsley House near Gatwick and Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire. All except Oakington (which is a reception centre for people who have just arrived) are removal centres for people who are awaiting deportation. In 2004 it secured a contract to run a new so-called 'accommodation centre', being built as part of a national trial scheme, in Bicester, Oxfordshire, which would hold detainees for up to six months while their claims were processed. In June 2005 the government abandoned this plan. The Bicester centre was the only one of these centres to have received planning permission; at the time of writing, it is not clear whether another removal centre will be built on the site, where some preliminary work has already started, or whether the whole project will now be abandoned. Local campaign group Bicester Refugee Support fears the former.3

It runs several 'holding centres' around the country, which are all attached to reporting centres and hold people for short periods of time, for example on their way to other detention centres or deportation, under contract with the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND).

GSL also runs 'court services', including prisoner transport. According to the company website, it 'makes more than 600,000 prisoner movements per year in England & Wales' and '70,000 prisoner inter-prison movements per year'.4 See 'corporate crimes' section for criticism GSL has received in delivering this service.

In its 'police support services' section, GSL runs custody units for local police forces in Warwickshire, Norfolk, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire and Lancashire. It also offers its assistance with 'other services or duties that do not require the specialist skills of a police officer'5.

GSL has a 25 year £35 million PFI contract to design, build, finance and operate Manchester Magistrates Court, and to manage services including catering, cleaning, security, reception and maintenance.6

Education

While still part of Group 4, GSL won a PFI contract to build three schools in North Wiltshire. The project was completed in 2002 and GSL appears not to have entered any more education-related contracts outside of its custodial activities.7

Other areas

Companies which specialise in outsourcing are becoming increasingly multi-disciplinary in an attempt to make more markets available to them. Thus GSL also manages a headteachers' induction programme for the National College for School Leadership and the MoD's Enhanced Learning Credits Initiative; and runs training courses for the Inland Revenue, the Home Office and the Civil Service.8

GSL has a £400m 30-year PFI contract to construct and service the new GCHQ building in Cheltenham, and a 15-year contract to construct and service the new Meteorological Office Headquarters in Exeter.9

Through Accuread, in partnership with British Gas, GSL does gas and electricity meter readings.

International

Internationally, GSL is generally promoting and exporting privatisation. It has projects in Australia and South Africa with a heavy focus on detention.

Australia In Australia GSL manages10:

   * Prisons: maximum security Port Phillip Prison in Melbourne, Victoria, and low/medium security Mount Gambier Prison in South Australia (Australia's first ever private prison);
   * Security at the Thomas Embling Hospital (a Forensicare facility for the treatment of mental disorders associated with criminal behaviour);
   * Detention Services for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA), on behalf of the Australian Government. In August 2003 Group 4 signed a contract with DIMIA to manage all of Australia's immigration detention centres and immigration reception and processing centres, lasting initially for four years and with the option of a further three;
   * Prisoner Movement and In-Court Management for the South Australian Government;
   * Prisoner Transportation Services in Victoria;
   * Medical Transport Services in Victoria: non-emergency ambulance services. 

South Africa GSL is responsible for South Africa's first PFI contract, the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, opened in July 2001, which has a capacity for 3000 inmates.11

References 1. GSL's 2003 annual report, p33. For a critical look at the effects of LIFT schemes, see www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/13620.pdf

2. www.reboundecd.com/

3. www.bicesterrefugeesupport.org.uk/news/EEEllyuupEhFuewkty.html 15 June 2005.

4. www.gslglobal.com/markets/custodial/court_services.asp refers to regions of the country where it works.

5. The Gloucester Citizen, May 13 2004, 'Changing the guard for those in trouble', UK Newsquest regional press – This is Lancashire, May 1 2004, 'Security giards drafted in to help police', The Sentinel (Stoke), February 16 2005, 'New jail will be ready by October', www.gslglobal.com/markets/police_support.asp

6. www.gslglobal.com/markets/custodial/manchester_magistrates.asp

7. www.gslglobal.com/markets/education.asp

8. www.gslglobal.com/markets/business_management.asp

9. www.gslglobal.com/markets/foreign_office.asp

10. Info from www.gslpl.com.au/gsl/contracts/contracts.asp

11. www.gslglobal.com/markets/custodial/custodial.asp www.psiru.org/justice/ppri52.asp#SouthAfrica