INDIA – Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) has announced that its UK arm has been awarded a contract worth Rs 2,100 crore (US$281.5 million) to provide critical customer support to UK citizens for the first two years.

The contract was awarded to HGS UK Ltd by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which is in charge of NHS Test & Trace. The contract is for two years with an option to extend further.

The contract will help with future contact tracing needs for COVID-19 and other health security risks such as a large flu outbreak or new pandemic.

In an official statement, the company stated that the collaboration is already underway, having begun earlier this week.

HGS has developed and grown its partnership with the UK government over the last decade, with this being its largest-ever win in the public sector to date, drawing on a foundation of excellence created by the UK business delivering existing public sector campaigns across the country.

The contract, which employs over 2,000 Work From Home (WFH) positions across the United Kingdom, could be worth up to £211 million (approx. Rs 2,100 crores) over the term of the contract.

The UKHSA is in charge of ‘NHS Test & Trace,’ and this contract will help with future contact tracing needs for COVID-19 and other health security threats like a large flu outbreak or new pandemic.

According to HGS, the contract’s advertised cost is the maximum that can be spent, and the total could be less.

HGS Europe CEO Adam Foster said: “I’m beyond proud that HGS will be supporting the UK government in its effort to exit and recover from the pandemic. Winning this opportunity is a credit to the past 10 years of expansion of the UK business, and the public sector expertise we’ve developed and have become recognized for.” 

According to HGS executive director and group CEO Partha DeSarkar, revenues of HGS UK were approximately £67 million (US$91.24million) at the end of 2020-21 and the company has more than doubled its revenues to £87 million (US$118.48 million) in the nine months to December 2021.

Meanwhile, the UKHSA has signed £1m (US$1.36 million) deal with Deloitte to help get private Covid tests to market following a surge in demand for free tests this winter.

UKHSA – which includes NHS Test and Trace – agreed to pay the big-four firm £950,364 (US$1.29 million) for “the provision of private market testing providers into the [lateral flow device] market,” in December, following a nationwide shortage of lateral-flow devices due to the emergence of the Omicron variant.

The agreement is valid until the end of March, and it comes as Boris Johnson is expected to announce restrictions on the availability of free Covid tests as part of the government’s “living with Covid” plan.

The Department for Health and Social Care has previously said it wants to “facilitate and empower a thriving private sector market for Covid-19 detection tests to supplement and support testing led by NHS Test and Trace.

Deloitte is not involved in accrediting test devices used by UKHSA and distributed through the test and trace programme, which go through a different approval process.

The contract was awarded through a central framework that government bodies can use to access management consultancy on areas such as business, strategy and policy, and health and social care.

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