Times deputy political editor Sam Coates tweets:

More from shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett following David Lidington's statement to MPs on Carillion:

"The House will conclude it was recklessly complacent in seeking to avoid responsibility for the Government and placing the whole responsibility on the company. After all, Carillion provides 450 separate taxpayer funded contracts to the public."

KPMG, which audited Carillion's books, has just issued a statement:

“We believe that we conducted our role as Carillion’s auditor appropriately and responsibly.

“We issued our last audit opinion on 1 March 2017 in respect of the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2016. In agreement with Carillion, in June 2017 we accelerated some of our audit procedures in relation to underperforming construction contracts.

"This work involved KPMG’s internal contract specialists, including quantity surveyors, and was taken into account by Carillion when reporting the £845 million write-downs to construction contracts announced in its half year trading update on 10 July 2017. We issued our standard interim review opinion on Carillion’s half year results on 29 September 2017 and at the date of liquidation were carrying out our final audit work.

“We note today’s statement by the Financial Reporting Council. We recognise that it is important that regulators acting in the public interest review high profile cases and will of course cooperate fully with any enquiries that the FRC or other regulatory agencies may make.”

FT chief political correspondent Jim Pickard has been listening to the Commons debate on the demise of Carillion.

Following David Lidington's statement, shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett replied:

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington (pictured) is making a statement on the collapse of construction firm Carillion.

The company has gone into liquidation after talks between the firm, its lenders and the government failed to reach a deal to save the UK's second biggest construction company.

Mr Lidington says it's "regrettable" but as a private company its shareholders will "bear the brunt" and not taxpayers.

A helpline is being set up to assist employees and pensioners, he tells the Commons, and the government will help ensure "uninterrupted delivery of public services".

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Parliament

Image source, PA

The heads of the civil service are being asked by MPs about the lessons that can be learned in Whitehall from Carillion's collapse.

"In many ways this is the failure of a private sector company. It failed to reach agreement with its lenders in the final analysis," says John Manzoni, chief executive of the Civil Service.

"Some wheel is going to come off sooner or later somewhere in the system, but this is a very very complex structure. I believe the structures we've put in place, and the lessons we've learned in the past, have put us in reasonably good stead for this," he tells MPs.

Image source, Reuters

Carillion employees in Northern Ireland who work on social housing maintenance have unanimously voted to demand direct employment by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. Most of Carillion's work in Northern Ireland is for the Housing Executive.

The trade union Unite organised a meeting of workers on Monday afternoon.

Unite regional secretary Jackie Pollock said the union met the Housing Executive several months ago and had been assured that if Carillion collapsed, the maintenance contract would be offered to an alternative operator so there should be no discontinuity of employment.

However, he said that union members had reported that when Carillion staff went to work this morning, they were instructed to go home: "Unite is demanding that the Housing Executive follow through on their promises."

The spokesman for prime minister Theresa May says he is not aware of any services failing to be delivered following the collapse of Carillion.

The company has contracts to provide services to hundreds of prisons, hospitals and schools across the UK.

Image source, PA

Why wasn't detailed due dilligence carried out before contracts were awarded to Carillion after it had issued profit warnings, asks Conservative Dame Cheryl Gillan.

"It was," replies John Manzoni, chief executive of the Civil Service.

"We have to be very even handed about this. Just because the company has given a profit warning, we can't say that we won't touch that," he tells MPs.

Such a move might make things for that company even worse, he adds.

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Image source, Parliament Live

MPs are speaking to three of the most senior mandarins in the civil service about what led to the demise of Carillion, a key government contractor.

John Manzoni, chief executive of the Civil Service, says that in the past two years, dedicated teams have been in charge to look at the 30 to 35 biggest government suppliers.

"In this case had we had this situation a couple of years ago, the outcome would have been significantly different and probably significantly worse for the public sector than it is today," he tells MPs on the Public Administration Committee.

Image source, Getty Images

Federation of Small Businesses chief Mike Cherry says some small businesses will go to the wall as a result of Carillion's collapse.

"Whilst we all concentrate on the employees of Carillion, we never seem to really count the fall out in the supply chain completely, and I very much regret that this is going to be quite significant," he tells the BBC.

"And of course as I say my heart goes out to all those small businesses wondering what's going to happen next."

A Commons committee has announced it will hold an inquiry into government outsourcing following the demise of Carillion.

Bernard Jenkin, chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said it would look at the "lessons to be learned from the collapse".

It will also look at wider issues in Whitehall around public procurement, IT and the relationship with non-public sector bodies.

Mr Jenkin said this morning that the whole of government would be affected by the firm's collapse, but that he did not want to play the "blame game".

The Financial Times explains why Carillion went into liquidation, rather than the more common administration.

The government will take on public services after the UK's second biggest construction firm fails.

More from Gavin Williamson in the Commons:

Image source, g

Gavin Williamson was asked in the Commons what contingency plans the government had for armed forces housing, which is run by CarillionAmey.

He told MPs: "There will be a Cobra meeting later on today to look at addressing some of the most immediate issues."

Ministers, civil servants, police, intelligence officers and others appropriate to the issue in question attend a Cobra meeting. They are more commonly held in the wake of terror attacks or natural disasters than corporate collapses, however.

Cobra meetings - or Cobr meetings as they are often also called - are named after Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall.

Defence secretary Gavin Williamson has said the government's emergency Cobra committee will meet later on Monday to discuss the collapse of Carillion.

Further, Cabinet Office minister David Lidington will make a statement to the House of Commons about the company at about 4.15pm.

It will also be repeated later in the Lords by Cabinet Office spokesman Lord Young of Cookham.

ITV political editor Robert Peston tweets:

Image source, Reuters

Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald accused Transport Secretary Chris Grayling (pictured) of a "negligent and carefree approach" to awarding contracts to Carillion.

"The government should step in and take over Carillion's rail contracts to ensure rail renewal and enhancement work is brought in-house within Network Rail along with maintenance work," he said.

The government contractor has gone into liquidation leaving question marks over contracts, jobs and pensions.