It is incredible that 300,000 migrant overstayers can go missing in the UK (Report, 18 December) and even more incredible that the records on who has left the country have “significant inaccuracies”. Pursuit of these overstayers and the recording of data has been outsourced to Capita and its contract should be terminated. However, who would take over from Capita? Maybe, G4S. Or maybe not – as G4S is 15% owned by Investco, a US finance company, which also owns 23% of Capita. In fact, about 40% of the shares in the small number of outsourcing companies tendering for these contracts are owned by foreign, mainly US, financial institutions. Perhaps it would be more efficient to go back to having a properly functioning civil service of qualified bureaucrats.
Michael Gold
London
