Responding to the news that Carillion has gone into liquidation, Roger Barker, Head of Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors, said:

“We are still in the early stages of finding out what went wrong at Carillion. However, it is clear that major providers of public services must be governed in a prudent manner. Today’s outcome suggests that effective governance was lacking at Carillion, and we must now consider if the board and shareholders have exercised appropriate oversight prior to the collapse.

“There are some worrying signs. The relaxation of clawback conditions for executive bonuses in 2016 appears in retrospect to be highly inappropriate. It does no good to the reputation of UK business when top managers appear to benefit in spite of the collapse of the organisations that they are responsible for.

“Going forward, it may be necessary for government to consider how it can better monitor the robustness of governance at key contractors.”