Hospital construction firm challenged over ‘undocumented workers’ allegation
Martin Shipton
Campaigners have challenged representatives of a controversial construction company building a £1bn hospital for NHS Wales after whistleblowers told them that undocumented migrant workers had been working on the site.
Spanish firm Sacyr is a key member of the Acorn Consortium, which is building the new Velindre Cancer Centre at Whitchurch in Cardiff.
The company has been the subject of severe criticism after it was revealed that it had been convicted of bid-rigging with five other other companies involving major construction contracts in Spain. The firms had operated a secret cartel over 25 years to inflate the cost of major public sector projects. Sacyr was fined 16.7m euros in 2022 for its role in the criminality.
Environmental and clinical groups that opposed the siting of the new hospital on what was a well-loved green space known as the Northern Meadows are continuing to scrutinise the project.
Immigration services
Ian Vincent of the Save The Northern Meadows group told Nation.Cymru that three independent sources had told them how undocumented workers from overseas had been working on the site.
He said: “A number of people who have worked on the project have spoken to us, but there is one in particular who made contact with us through the Save the Northern Meadows website. He came to us – we didn’t seek him out.
“Because I’m a construction manager, everything he said to me rang true. I’ve had some detailed discussions with him, and he doesn’t work for Sacyr any more. He left.
“But he was there on the site at the time the immigration services were there. And he categorically told me without prompting that they had advance warning that the visit was coming, and that quite a number of the sub-contractor’s employees didn’t turn up for work that day.
“They do employ a lot of Indian labour, Ukrainians, Russians. Interestingly, Sacyr says 80% of the workforce is local. It’s not. I speak to a lot of them when they’re coming off-site. The vast majority of them are foreign workers. They’re working on the concrete frame of the building – fixing the steel reinforcing, pouring and finishing the concrete.
“The guy I spoke to absolutely told me that they had a tip-off, and said definitely that a lot of them didn’t show up for work that day,
“We know they’re struggling to get legitimate people because a lot of the guys doing steel reinforcing are working on the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset
“Another of our members has had similar things reported to him by people who were working on the site. And then we’ve had another whistleblower who said the same thing again. So we’ve got three sources.”
Senedd question
A Senedd question on the matter was posed by South Wales Central MS Rhys ab Owen to Jeremy Miles, the Cabinet Secretary for Health. Mr ab Owen asked: “Is the Cabinet Secretary aware of any raids by immigration forces and arrests of undocumented workers at Sacyr, the construction partner of Velindre University NHS Trust?”
Mr Miles responded: “Velindre University NHS Trust has a contract with the Acorn Consortium to construct the new Velindre Cancer Centre – not Sacyr. The trust was contacted by the Home Office in relation to a number of allegations, which it referred on to the Acorn Consortium. A site visit was made and the Acorn Consortium co-operated fully. No arrests were made.”
Notified
At a community liaison meeting in Whitchurch on July 30 2025, Sacyr representatives were questioned about the issue.
One of the company’s employees confirmed that Sacyr had been notified in advance that Border Agency officials would be visiting the site on a particular day.
She denied that anyone had been arrested or detained, and insisted that neither Sacyr or its sub-contractors were employing undocumented workers.
A number of those present said that as a result of the company’s criminal conviction and its persistence in working outside the agreed working day of 8am to 6pm, Sacyr was not trusted by the local community.
A representative of Velindre University NHS Trust said Sacyr’s conviction did not disqualify the company from being involved in the Acorn Consortium.
Audit Wales has been investigating the procurement of the contract and will publish a report in due course.
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Felindre.
Keep up the scrutiny on this company. Well done.
It’s about time the National Insurance card was brought back with biometrics and work status.
No skills in Cymru to build? Well it might be about time the Senedd did something about it instead of employing foreigners whereas £1bn will leave the country. Start training youngsters here for goodness sake.
If you examine recent records you will no doubt find reports of training “initiatives” aimed at various sectors including construction. Lots of government money “invested” in grants to various companies and providers yet we end up with an ongoing skills deficit. The training is often inadequate or at best rudimentary, employers can’t be bothered with further training as they are only concerned with the here and now, and nobody at corporate or government level seems to have the knowhow to address the future needs across a number of skill intensive sectors. Thus we end up with too many young people… Read more »
As the article explained they’re all in Hinkley.
Soon to move to Sizewell in coming years
Do the construction workers etc. need to have 1st class honours to do the work!!!
With the closure of heavy industry, what were our young non-academics going to do? All end up in call centres? Did they not think that huge investment in construction and related fields would be the way forward? Welsh Labour have had 20 years of power to put in place long term strategies for this. They knew they could do it as nobody (until now) was going to come close to unseating them. What a wasted opportunity.
You can do all that only to have them lured away by London, HS2 and Hinkley Point C. That’s the problem with being in an economic union with another nation that doesn’t bother to do the same.
When your government hires a company found guilty of corruption for over 25yrs , who is corrupt?
But not under UK law as I understand it. You have to draw the line somewhere otherwise a parking ticket issued to a director in an Australian subsidiary might be enough to block a bid.