Editor's blog Monday 1 November 2010: Serco were just kidding their suppliers. Of course.

You may have seen that we picked up on the news about public sector outsourcing giant Serco's fascinating supplier engagement strategy yesterday.

Serco appear to have changed their mind.

Serco have now apparently stated that after consultation with their leading suppliers, ""As a result our plans evolved and we decided not to seek or accept any contributions from our suppliers, who had recently received letters asking for rebates. As a company that values our relationships with all our supply chain partners, large and small, we deeply regret this action and apologise unreservedly to them for the concern that this has caused".

So that's all right, then.