Private equity groups collect millions to run publicly funded rape referral centres

Millions in taxpayer funds are being paid to private equity-backed firms to provide specialist support services for rape and sexual assault victims, with charities concerned over the profits made by investors on these contracts, the Guardian can reveal.

- Sarah Marsh, Carmen Aguilar Garcia

The government contractor G4S and Mountain Healthcare, which is ultimately owned by a private equity group set up by the former boss of the outsourcing group Capita, run 26 of the 50 NHS- and police-funded centres in England that support thousands of child and adult survivors of sexual assault.

In the last financial year, the two companies collected £16m for running sexual assault referral centres (Sarcs), according to government figures. The centres help thousands of survivors each year by providing psychological and medical services and gathering evidence for criminal prosecutions.

Mountain has paid at least £15m in dividends since it was acquired by its current owner in 2018, from revenues that appear to have come mainly from the provision of public services, analysis of published contracts and company accounts suggests.

Critics question whether companies should be able to run vital support centres at a profit, using scarce public money.

Andrea Simon, the director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the findings gave a "real pause for thought" given how "chronically underfunded frontline specialist support services are".