Former Prison Service boss Phil Wheatley to work for private security firm

Former Prison Service boss Phil Wheatley to work for private security firm

Trade union fury as Phil Wheatley becomes a consultant for G4S

Phil Wheatley starts work as a consultant for G4S next month. Photograph: Observer

Trade unions have reacted furiously to news that the former head of the Prison Service is to become an adviser to a private security company bidding for multimillion-pound contracts to run jails.

Phil Wheatley was until June the head of the National Offender Management Service (Noms), the organisation responsible for overseeing the 260,000 offenders who pass through the prison and probation system each year.

During Wheatley's time in charge, the Ministry of Justice introduced measures that opened the way for more jails to be run by the private sector.

From next month, Wheatley will work as a consultant to G4S, the security company that employs 595,000 employees around the world and is looking to bid for a plethora of contracts from the ministry.

G4S already manages four UK prisons, three secure training centres and three immigration centres, but is seeking to capitalise on the coalition government's apparent enthusiasm for expanding the role of the private sector.

G4S said Wheatley's new role had been registered with the advisory committee on business appointments and fully complied with all of its requirements. He is prohibited from personally lobbying ministers or civil servants on behalf of G4S for 12 months from the date when he stood down from his previous job.

However, the probation officers' union, Napo, questioned whether there was a conflict of interest in Wheatley working for G4S so soon after standing down as director general.

"It's a concern that this appointment has been made so quickly," said Harry Fletcher, Napo's assistant general secretary. "Until June, Phil Wheatley had oversight of the tendering process. He would know what it takes for private bids to succeed."

David Banks, managing director of G4S care and justice services, said Wheatley's "extensive experience in the prison service... will be of enormous benefit as we seek to develop our care and justice portfolio around the world".

Wheatley joins an exodus of prison governors from the public sector to the big security firms which, along with G4S, include Sodexho and Calyx.