Two police forces involved in a £1.5 billion contract to part-privatise their services have suspended their participation in the process, it has emerged.

Surrey and West Midlands Police had launched a joint procurement exercise to find a private-sector business partner to deliver a range of services such as guarding crime scenes and monitoring CCTV footage.

Bidders for the ten-year contract had been narrowed down to a shortlist of six providers. The list included the firm G4S, which has already won a contract to build and run a police station in Lincolnshire, but is currently facing criticism for its failure to provide enough security guards for this summer’s Olympics.

Surrey Police confirmed yesterday that it was suspending its part in the process. West Midlands closely followed with a decision to defer its involvement until after new police and crime commissioners are elected for the country’s constabularies in November.

Peter Williams, chairman of Surrey Police Authority, said that as potential commissioner candidates were actively campaigning to put a stop to the business partnering programme, “it would not be prudent” to continue to plough taxpayers’ money into the scheme.

“We have learned a great deal from the time and money invested in the programme thus far, but we have always maintained that we would be prepared to exit the process if it became apparent that significant benefits to Surrey Police, and thus to the Surrey public, were unlikely to be achieved,” Williams explained.

“Members agreed today that it is right that we should suspend our involvement in the programme at this time, and that we should look to withdraw altogether following a more detail assessment of our options in September.”

West Midlands Police Authority confirmed that it would defer the selection of a service provider, but insisted that it still supported the strategic case for partnering with the private sector.

The authority said in a statement: “Business partnering is about bringing new ways of working and achieving value for money. It is not about privatisation and anyone else providing core police services.”

In May, the House of Commons home affairs committee said it was not convinced that Surrey and West Midlands Police had “fully understood” the costly joint procurement exercise that they were undertaking, adding that the process “lacked clarity.”

The controversial privatisation plans had already been met with opposition from the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, and the trade union Unite.

Unite – which staged a protest outside the West Midlands Police Authority meeting yesterday – warned that the G4S Olympics “fiasco” did not bode well for similar security contracts with the police service.

“It beggars belief that these private companies can be seriously considered as providers of essential public services like policing,” said Len McCluskey, Unite’s general secretary. “The chief constable of West Midlands must now make it absolutely clear that this dangerous, costly and unwanted dabbling with policing for profit is herewith abandoned.”