GOVERNMENT spending on contracts with security giant G4S has soared by more than GBP65 million in a year, leading an MP to say the company was becoming the "private army" of the state.

More than £394 million of public money was spent on G4S contracts in 2012/13, up 20% on the £328.5 million outlay in 2011/12, new figures have shown.

Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman , who tabled written parliamentary questions to Whitehall departments asking what they spent on G4S contracts, said he was worried about an increasing over-reliance on a small number of companies.

The hike in public spending on G4S came in a year when the company faced heavy criticism for its botched handling of security at the Olympics, which meant extra military personnel had to be drafted in to cover staffing gaps.

Mr Sheerman said: "The trouble is a lot of contractors are in a monopoly.

"They do seem to be swelling up and getting bigger and bigger and we are getting to the stage where the over-reliance on one company troubles you.

"I am becoming increasingly worried about the monopoly position that G4S have in security services.

"They are becoming the private army of Her Majesty's Government.

"There is something going on that I think we need to shine a spotlight on."

Most of the hike in Government spending on G4S contracts was down to an extra £51 million spent by the Ministry of Justice on contracts with the company.

A spokesman for the department said the increase was down to G4S being given contracts to run prisons at Birmingham and Oakwood, as well as managing the facilities of a large part of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service.

The Department for Work and Pensions more than doubled its spend on G4S contracts - up from nearly £13.8 million to more than £32.1 million.

A contract awarded to G4S for the Government's Work Programme accounted for the increase, Employment Minister Mark Hoban said in his answer to Mr Sheerman's question.

The figures do not include spending by the Department for Communities and Local Government which has not yet answered the MP's question.

Mr Sheerman said it was "amazing" that so much was being spent on G4S when it was failing to pay Olympic subcontractors that were "not complicit in the debacle" of the company's handling of security at London 2012.

"I thought it was amazing that such an amount is being spent on one major contractor, also at a time when we still know that G4S have failed to pay subcontractors who have worked for them on the Olympic site," Mr Sheerman said.

He said some small and medium-sized businesses who worked on the Olympic site were made to subcontract to G4S by Locog, but now have not been
paid.

"I don't know why they haven't paid them, it is just bad principles," he said.

"They were told at one stage in the development they were running the logistics and security of the athlete's village.

"Once that was finished they became subcontractors and told to be subcontractors to G4S.

"One would have thought Locog would have leaned on G4S to do the honourable thing to the subcontractors.

"They were not complicit in the debacle that occurred when the army came in."

Former G4S company boss Nick Buckles, who was paid £1.2 million in 2012, has now quit just months after the Olympics fiasco.

At London 2012, armed forces personnel had to be drafted in to fill the gap left by G4S's failure to supply enough staff to fulfil their £284 million contract, which Mr Buckles admitted was "a humiliating shambles for the company".

This month, G4S's AGM was interrupted by protesters making reference to Jimmy Mubenga - an Angolan man who died while being deported from the UK by G4S guards.

In July last year, prosecutors said they would be taking no action against the three G4S staff over the death.