Government coaching Serco on how to win honours for running test-and-trace programme

Business department data leak shows firms profiting from pandemic are being invited to honours classes

Serco's announcement came a day after data showed the number of contacts traced by Test and Trace had fallen to a new low (Getty Images)

The government is giving private contractors profiting from the beleaguered test-and-trace programme and other areas of the pandemic tailored advice on how to win honours.

Serco, Capita, Deloitte, and Amazon are amongst firms who have been written to by civil servants urging them to apply for gongs like like knighthoods and MBEs.

Sarah Munby, the permanent secretary at the government's business department, wrote to the companies asking them "to submit honours nominations" on behalf of their organisations.

She also invited the companies' bosses to online classes on "how to master and award honours nomination".

The classes were billed as "a behind the scenes look at how the honours system operators" and "top tips on what to include in your nomination".

The apparently cosy relationship between the government and the companies was revealed after a civil service data leak.

The government's test-and-trace programme

Rachel Reeves, shadow cabinet office minister, said the letter to the companies was "unbelievable".

"The Conservatives’ priorities: a pay cut for our nurses and a gong for Serco. The mask is slipping," she said.

Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: "This is beggars belief.

"On the day Test and Trace was slammed for costing the taxpayer billions while failing to control this horrific virus its staggering government were offering to spray gongs around like confetti to firms involved.

"Ministers should be focusing on fixing Test and Trace not offering up rewards for failure."

A spokesman for the Department for Business said: "As part of the New Year’s honours process, we work with a wide range of business groups and other stakeholders to encourage an ever-increasingly wide and diverse spread of nominations.

"But to be clear, these emails do not indicate that any specific individual is being actively considered for New Year’s honours and any nominations received still need to go through a comprehensive, independent consideration process.

"BEIS takes its information and data handling responsibilities very seriously. We have contacted the parties concerned to apologise for the error and taken steps to mitigate any further incidents."

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “This is a routine request to businesses and the business community to attract as wide and as diverse range of nominations as possible. It remains the case that every nomination receives comprehensive independent consideration and no-one is being offered an honour.

“We’ve apologised for the human error in the process that meant that some emails to stakeholders were sent in copy, rather than in blind copy. However, it’s routine and regular for us to try and attract as wide a range of nominations as possible. 

“We contact a range of different groups - businesses, trade bodies, sector councils, local enterprise partnerships, trade unions, green groups, business representative organisations. That’s all in an effort to ensure we have a diverse range of nominations.”