Outsourcers are drawing up “living wills”, which lay out contingency plans should they die.
The government was caught off-guard by the collapse of construction giant Carillion earlier this year and wants to avoid a repeat of the mess that followed.
Cabinet minister David Lidington said that Capita, Serco and Sopra Steria have volunteered to create protocols if they drop down the loo.
In a report published on the government website, he said: “Carillion was a complicated business and when it failed it was left to government to step in – and it did. But we did not have the benefit of critical organisational information that could have smoothed the management of the liquidation.
“By ensuring contingency plans can be quickly put in place in the rare event of supplier failure, we will be better prepared to maintain continuity of critical public services.”
The government describes a living will as “a plan for how public services provided by a supplier can be secured and continued in the event of a potential company’s failure, to allow the government time to transfer the services safely to a new supplier or take them in-house”.
Carillion’s collapse has brought other larger outsourcing firms into the spotlight, with the likes of BT and Capita struggling recently.
The government said the new living wills could be completed within weeks.
