Exclusive: Serco took £180k of taxpayer money because Queen’s death delayed Santander e-bike launch

Serco took an extra £180,000 of taxpayer money as a late fee on a £50 million contract to run London’s Santander bike hire scheme – because the Queen’s death delayed its e-bike launch by three weeks.

The capital’s transport watchdog London Travel Watch said it would raise the matter with Transport for London (TfL), after a Freedom of Information request by NationalWorld revealed the multi-billion pound company had received a payment of £178,400 to cover “additional costs [...] due to the delayed launch of e-bikes”.

It was one of almost £9 million worth of costs TfL told NationalWorld it had incurred as a result of the Queen’s funeral and wider national mourning period last year. London Travel Watch suggested Serco should consider donating the money to a charity patronised by the late Queen – although added it was not “really our place to call for as they are a private company”.

Serco – a multinational that specialises in procuring contracts to deliver public services – recently confirmed it had agreed a three-year extension of its contract with TfL to run the cycle hire scheme, a role that involves providing and maintaining docks and bikes and running an operations centre to manage the daily availability of bikes. The extension is valued at £50 million, according to a Serco press release, with the previous five-year contract valued at £80 million, according to publicly available information on government contracts.

A fleet of 500 electric bikes was recently added to the scheme, with a launch originally set for 12 September last year. Following the Queen’s death on 8 September and 10-day national mourning period, the launch was pushed back to 6 October – 24 days later than planned. That means Serco received £7,400 for every day that the launch was delayed.

TfL told NationalWorld that it had decided to pause the introduction of e-bikes while it focused on preparing for the Queen’s state funeral. The FOI request revealed that TfL undertook a range of activities in preparation for the funeral, including removing then reinstating traffic signals along roads used in ceremonial processions, and setting up a new temporary coach station after road closures prevented the use of Victoria coach station in Central London.

David Eddington, TfL’s head of cycle hire, added: “A revised schedule for the launch was set following the mourning period, which helped to ensure both back-office systems and communications to customers about the launch were ready for the new date. Payments were in line with our contract with Serco.”

A Serco spokesperson also provided a short statement, which read: “We deliver multiple programmes for TfL and any costs are agreed with them in line with our contract.”