BUREAU HIT BY pounds 2m FINE; Criminal Records company punished.

Byline: TariqTahir

THE private company runningLiverpool's crisis-hit Criminal Records Bureau has been hit with a fine of almost pounds 2m, it has been revealed.

Capita, which won the pounds 400m contract to run the computers at the vital bureau,has had to pay fines representing almost 10pcof the pounds 20mit has so far received.

The bureau, set up to protect children and vulnerable adults from sex offenders, has faced a chaotic start, with applicants for job such as teaching waiting months for clearance.

But, until yesterday, the Government had refused to reveal the extent of the fines imposed on Capita,citing commercialconfidentiality.

Now, after pressure from Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Matthew Taylor,culminating in the threat of a Parliamentary probe, the Government has finally revealed the extent of the fines. Capitahas paidbackin fines about a tenth of the pounds 20m it has so far been paid for its work at thebureau.

Over ten years, the company will be paid about pounds 400m,out of the near-pounds 1bn cost of the CRB. About pounds 1.1m of the pounds 1.8m penalty is for failing to meet times for processing checks on teachers and carers, and others working with children and vulnerable adults.

Mr Taylor said: ``It's clear there has been acatalogueof failures by Capita.

``It's a measure of how badly things have gone wrong that, of the pounds 20m spent, nearly pounds 2m has gone on fines.

``The fact that I had to makeacomplaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman highlights not only that ministers are refusing to answer questions, but that private contractors are getting away with not being answerable to the public by hiding behind commercialconfidentiality.

``If the Government goes down the route of public-private partnership, then private companies have to be held accountable for the tax-payers'