Serco is looking to trim 500 jobs

More than 500 jobs were on the line at Serco yesterday after the outsourcer which makes its money by cutting its customers' costs took a look at its own wage bill.

Serco, which runs swathes of British public-sector services, including prisons, the Docklands Light Railway and the Boris Bike scheme, said it was "streamlining the management of its UK business", as well as its back-office staff. Most of the job cuts are likely to involve Serco's offices in Hook, near Basingstoke. It employs 35,000 people in the UK and 100,000 worldwide.