Established in 1984 and gaining its independence in 1987 management buyout, Capita's early business activities were largely orchestrated by Rod Aldridge, the company's first executive chairman.

Aldridge stepped down as the company's CEO in 2006 amid claims that a personal loan made to the Labour Party had influenced government contracts that were awarded to Capita.

[7] During 2018, following a profit warning, dividend suspension, a £700 million rights issue, and other measures amid rising debts and a pensions deficit, the company's share value dropped by 47%.

[14] During March 2006, Aldridge resigned as Capita's CEO in the aftermath of claims that contracts awarded to the company had been influenced by his loan of £1 million to the Labour Party.

[28] During 2015, the company acquired Avocis, a German call centre business,[29] and Trustmarque Solutions from rival outsourcing group Liberata in exchange for £57 million.

[48] During the early 2020s, the company undertook a series of divestments of non-core businesses with the aim of raising £700 million in response to financial pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic.

[59] However, on 9 August 2010, it was reported that the Solicitors Regulatory Authority ("SRA") had found that the arrangement breached its rules in that it effectively amounted to an ABS.

[60] As a consequence, Optima Legal Services Lead Litigation and Property Partners, Philip Robinson and Anthony Ruane respectively were both severely reprimanded by the SRA for what was found to be professional misconduct and only narrowly avoided referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal[61] and Adrian Lamb, former CEO of Optima Legal Services Limited, left the business in June 2010.

[62] In 1998, Capita won the contract to run Constructionline, the newly created Public-Private Partnership owned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

[65] Three years later, on 31 January 2018, Capita announced it wanted to sell Constructionline as part of a transformation programme including disposal of non-core assets and cost cutting.

[68] In June 2014, it was reported that at least five of eight Liverpool NHS Trusts which had contracted their payroll and recruitment to Capita in 2012, were withdrawing because of concerns about the quality of the service provided.

West London Mental Health NHS Trust cancelled their contract in September 2014, after the company proved "unable to meet acceptable 'time to hire' targets", particularly for nurses.

[73] During 2015, an undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph showed that in some cases locum agencies, Medicare and Team24 owned by Capita were charging some hospitals higher fees than others and giving false company details.

"[74] The company established Primary Care Support England in September 2015, replacing former regional services provided by each local health authority.

[75] A deal was negotiated to enable optician practices to claim interest, administrative costs and bank charges on late payments of General Ophthalmic Services fees by Capita.

[91] Liam Duggan, CEO of Capita Ireland stated at a Government enquiry in 2014, that they had thoroughly tested the new system for unsuitable words and even used a game of Scrabble for this purpose.

[95] According to the National Audit Office one of the main failings of the contract was the new recruiting website, that was delivered in 2017- four years late and three times the original cost.

"[98] During 2019, Capita won a 12-year contract to operate the Defence Fire and Rescue Service, at 53 sites across the UK, Cyprus, and the Falkland Islands, in a deal worth £525 million.

[100] However, Capita once more was subject to criticism when it proposed to cut firefighter numbers at HMNB Clyde and RNAD Coulport, two nuclear warhead facilities, by 15% less than two years after the contract was awarded.

This was described as a purely cost-cutting measure, as the firm is set to request the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to backfill the gaps in response.

It has gained the nickname "Crapita", particularly from the coverage in the satirical and current affairs magazine Private Eye, which routinely documents the company's many failures and setbacks in the public sector.

[105][106] In April 2014, a leak to The Guardian revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had to send civil servants in to help the company process personal independence payments for the seriously ill and the disabled.

"Waiting times for assessment," the newspaper noted, "have been so long that in some cases people with terminal conditions have died before receiving a penny.

[6] Capita admitted in April 2023 that hackers breached its systems a month earlier and stole a small amount of client or staff data as part of a cyberattack involving a Russian ransomware gang.

[109][110] On 12 May 2023, the UK Universities Superannuation Scheme stated that Capita, its outsourced administration provider, had exposed "the personal data of about half a million members" during a cyberattack.