Shadow State: Inside the Secret Companies that Run Britain

(Paperback)

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Description

Every year the British government spends 80 billion outsourcing public services. The result is that private companies are now responsible for fulfilling some of the most sensitive and important roles of the state - running prisons and providing healthcare, transport, legal aid, even child protection. These organisations are enormously powerful, yet for the most part they operate with no transparency or accountability. From deportation flights to NHS cutbacks, Alan White exposes what can go wrong when profit becomes the main motivator in public services. Informed by exclusive interviews with senior managers and whistle- blowers, this excoriating work is the first to examine this controversial arm of British government. As well as providing the full story behind scandals involving G4S, Serco and ATOS, Shadow State reveals previously unknown cases of system failure in social care, healthcare and justice. The picture it paints is deeply troubling.

Reviews

'Readable and well ordered'.

* Literary Review *

'[A] powerful account of the impact of the privatisation of public servicesprovides a timely and important analysis of this often overlooked feature of public life'

* Evening Standard *

The takeover of government activity by a cartel of unaccountable corporations is a major shift in the way Britain works. Alan White shines a light into this murky world. Everyone is affected by the shadow state. Everyone should read Shadow State.

-- Andy Slaughter MP, Shadow Minister for Human Rights

In February 2014 the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee published a devastating report on the way in which public services were contracted out to the private sector... Alan Whites well-researched book Shadow State, provides many examples that prove the Committees case, and will, I hope, act as an urgently needed call for action, particularly to improve the standard of contracting throughout Whitehall.

-- Lord Ramsbotham, former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales

This is a must read for anyone who wants to know about the growing power and role of the private sector in delivering public services. Its comprehensive, written in a gripping style and chronicles many of the private sectors failures. It punctures the myth that the private sector is better at delivering public service.

-- Dame Margaret Hodge MP

Author Bio

Alan White is UK Breaking News Reporter at Buzzfeed. He has written for The Times, the Guardian, Private Eye and the TLS, amongst other publications. His series of articles, 'The Shadow State', ran on the New Stateman website and were amongst its most read pieces. He lives in London.