Government hires Mitie to do 10,000 home visits every day to check if passengers are in quarantine

by

The £90m snooper army: Government hires private contractor Mitie to carry out 10,000 home visits every day to check if passengers are in quarantine after flying back to UK from overseas

  • Extra manpower will dramatically increase the capacity for daily home visits 
  • Mitie is tasked by Home Office to catch flouters not undergoing quarantine
  • Overseas arrivals must do 10 days mandatory quarantine and get tested 

By Jack Elsom For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Priti Patel has stepped up the Government’s crackdown on mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals by hiring a firm to carry out up to 10,000 house checks per day.

Private contractor Mitie has been tasked by the Home Office to catch flouters failing to undergo their required period of isolation.  

Their extra manpower will dramatically increase the capacity for daily home visits, which at present number about 1,000 and are done by police.   

The new contract awarded to outsourcing giant Mitie allows a total spend of up to £90million.  

Priti Patel has stepped up the Government’s crackdown on mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals by hiring a private firm to do up to 10,000 house checks per day

Mitie has been tasked by the Home Office to catch flouters failing to undergo their required period of isolation

Mitie has been tasked by the Home Office to catch flouters failing to undergo their required period of isolation

Under tight border rules to insulate from worrying variants and infection spikes in Europe, all overseas arrivals must go into self-isolation for 10 days, which can be shortened by testing negative.

For people arriving from countries on the Department for Transport’s red list, this self-isolation must be done in Government-approved hotels. Fines start at £1,000 and jump to £10,000 for repeated rule-breaking. 

Mitie enforcers will conduct checks on travellers who are required to self-isolate at home, but will not do hotel visits.

A Government source said: ‘The number of operatives will vary depending on the number of visits needed, and the locations of the visits.

‘If appropriate, Mitie staff may visit certain travellers more than once, if they are suspected of breaching their requirement to self-isolate.’ 

Under tight border rules to insulate from worrying variants and infection spikes in Europe, all overseas arrivals must go into self-isolation for 10 days, which can be shortened by testing negative (Heathrow pictured)

Under tight border rules to insulate from worrying variants and infection spikes in Europe, all overseas arrivals must go into self-isolation for 10 days, which can be shortened by testing negative (Heathrow pictured)

Mitie, a London-based professional services firm, does work across Whitehall and has been handed multiple Covid contracts.

The firm currently supplies testing staff, security and cleaners at testing sites across the UK, as well as mobile units.  

Flying out of the UK is currently banned except for exceptional circumstances and rule-breakers face a £5,000 fine.

The earliest foreign holidays could return is May 17 when the Government will use a ‘traffic light’ system to designate countries according to their risk level.

But the appetite for travelling abroad could fade after officials warned passengers face queues of up to six hours at the border.

Chris Garton, chief solutions officer at Heathrow Airport, told MPs that delays are being caused by huge amounts of paperwork and were ‘well in excess of two hours and up to six’.

Outsourcing giant that raked in £972million during pandemic as it was handed Covid contracts

Mitie is one of the UK’s largest professional services companies and provides everything from cleaners, to engineers to security. 

Clients include private firms such as banks and retailers, but they also receive millions from the public sector including hospitals, schools and Whitehall departments. 

Interim results from the six months to September 2020 – during the pandemic – showed revenue of £972million, only down 9.8 per cent on the previous year.

The company was awarded government contracts to staff testing centres with security, cleaners, registration assistants and testing staff.

One testing centre in Inverness suffered a virus outbreak in January after Mitie staff reportedly tested positive. 

As well as the most recent Home Office quarantine contract, it also provides security from Home office buildings. 

Last month porters, cleaners and catering staff contracted by Mitie staged a strike at the Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary over pay and working hours.

Mitie employs over 77,500 and is headquartered in Southwark.