G4S boss earmarks major UK job cuts at troubled company

The boss of G4S, the security behemoth best known for its failures ahead of the London 2012 Olympics, is this week set to outline major job cuts in the UK as part of a new company strategy.

Chief executive Ashley Almanza is to reveal plans for the company on Tuesday, just a fortnight after replacing G4S's UK chief.

That was part of an attempt to rescue G4S's damaged reputation and relationship with the Government – one of its major clients – after not only the Olympic failures that saw the army called into fill the shortfall of security guards, but also recent allegations that the firm and its rival, Serco, charged the taxpayer for contracts relating to the electronic tagging of offenders who were dead, in prison, or had never existed.

Richard Morris, G4S's chief executive of UK and Ireland, left on 24 October. Less than 24 hours later, Serco chief executive Chris Hyman, resigned, claiming the outsourcer needed a new boss to repair relations with Government.

Now City analysts expect Mr Almanza to axe thousands of UK jobs.

G4S may also announce further disposals: on Thursday it sold G4S Norway to Nokas for £30.5m. It has also sold a Canadian cash unit and a data-storage business in Colombia, and hoisted "for sale" signs over two American businesses – US Government Solutions and Regulated Security Solutions.