London Fire Brigade Outsources Emergency Call Operations
The 10-year contract with Capita plc makes it the first fire brigade in Britain to outsource its emergency call handling.
The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority agreed March 15 to outsource the London Fire Brigade's 999 control and mobilizing service through a 10-year contract with Capita plc that will save the agency more than £5million over the contract's lifetime.
"This is a win-win situation for Londoners. Outsourcing the brigade's 999 control center will mean people in the capital benefit from a new, high-tech system that will mobilize our firefighters to incidents even more quickly, and this will be done at less cost," said Brian Coleman, chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. "Capita has an outstanding record of working with other emergency services and will continue to provide Londoners with a first-class 999 service. The capital has one of the best fire and rescue services in the world, and now we will have the mobilizing system to match. At a time when the public sector is having to look carefully at what it spends, this contract will represent excellent value for money for taxpayers across the capital."
Capita is a leading UK provider of support solutions to emergency services. It has more than 45,000 employees and is involved in about a dozen sectors, including wellness and occupational health. It agreed in February 2012 to acquire the occupational health business of Aviva UK Health (terms were not disclosed), which provides a complete range of occupational health services to more than 500 business and other organizations. For more information, visit http://www.capita.co.uk/markets/pages/emergencyservices.aspx.