Government jobs boost Babcock

Profits at Babcock International, the engineering services group, jumped by 13 per cent in the first half of the year as cost-cutting governments around the world farmed out more work to the private sector.

Babcock, which maintains British navy submarines, reported interim, pre-tax profits of £143m, after a strong performance from its support services unit pushed up revenues by 6 per cent to £1.55bn.

Peter Rogers, Babcock's chief executive, said: "The contracts have started to come through now and resources have been firmly focused on saving cash for governments."