In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confir ...
, the
British government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_es ...
decided in March 2020 to rapidly place contracts and recruit a number of individuals. Shortages of
personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elec ...
(PPE) were a particular political issue for the
second Johnson ministry
The second Johnson ministry began on 16 December 2019, three days after Boris Johnson's audience with Queen Elizabeth II where she invited him to form a new administration following the 2019 general election, in which the Conservative Party w ...
. This led to the awarding of a number of contracts without a
competitive tendering
Best Value was government policy in the United Kingdom affecting the provision of public services in England and Wales. In Wales, Best Value is known as the Wales Programme for Improvement. A statutory duty of Best Value applies in Scotland.Audi ...
process, and friends of political figures and people who had made political donations were quickly given contracts. As a result, accusations of
cronyism
Cronyism is the spoils system practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations. For example, cronyism occurs when appointin ...
were made against the government.
Shortages of PPE and equipment
Since the
2007 H5N1 influenza outbreak,
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
(NHS) trusts had conducted simulations of
influenza-like pandemics. Russell King, an NHS resilience manager, said; "the
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...
had identified the availability and distribution of PPE
ersonal protective equipmentas a pinch point in a pandemic".
![A doctor wearing personal protective equipment for treating patients with COVID-19](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/A_doctor_wearing_personal_protective_equipment_for_treating_patients_with_COVID-19.jpg)
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the government was criticised for the lack of PPE available to NHS workers, and there was pressure to quickly supply PPE to the NHS.
The UK claims it did not take part in an 8 April bid for €1.5bn (£1.3bn) worth of PPE by members of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU), or any bids under the EU Joint Procurement Agreement, which was set up in 2014 after the
H1N1 influenza pandemic because the UK had
left the EU.
The agreement allows EU countries to purchase as a bloc, securing the best prices and allowing quick procurement at a time of shortages. Under the terms of the
Brexit withdrawal agreement
The Brexit withdrawal agreement, officially titled Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, is a treaty between the European Uni ...
, the UK government had the right to take part in the bid until 31 December 2020.
In March 2020, the government called for British industry to manufacture
medical ventilators for the NHS.
Dyson Dyson may refer to:
* Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson
* Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson
* Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon
* Dyson (operating system), a Unix general-pur ...
and
Babcock revealed plans to manufacture 30,000 ventilators, a number seen as necessary based on modelling from China. The "ventilator challenge" involved companies such as
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
,
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
and
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
. Company sources later told ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' this was known to be impractical at the time; the ventilators suggested by the government were crude and would not have been able to be used in hospitals. None of the companies involved reached the final stages of testing and most were, in hindsight, superfluous.
The Doctors' Association UK
The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) is a professional association for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association was formed by junior doctors led by Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden in January 2018 in response to the Bawa-Garba case.
DAUK is a no ...
said on 31 March 2020 shortages were covered up with intimidating emails, threats of disciplinary action and, in two cases, doctors being sent home from work. Some doctors were disciplined after managers were annoyed by material they had posted online about the shortages. Speaking to
Nafeez Ahmed
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed (born 1978) is a British investigative journalist, author and academic. He is editor of the crowdfunded investigative journalism platform INSURGE intelligence. He is a former environment blogger for ''The Guardian'' from ...
in April, former
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
(WHO) employee
Anthony Costello
Anthony Costello (born 20 February 1953) is a British paediatrician. Until 2015 Costello was Professor of International Child Health and Director of the Institute for Global Health at the University College London. Costello is most notable fo ...
said; "We simply don't have enough PPE. Not enough visors, not enough N95 respirators.
hegovernment is not following WHO guidelines."
On 18 April,
Robert Jenrick
Robert Edward Jenrick (born 9 January 1982) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Immigration since October 2022. He served as Minister of State for Health from September to October 2022. He served as Secretary of State fo ...
reported 400,000 protective gowns and other PPE were on their way to the UK from Turkey. One day later, they were delayed, leading hospital leaders to criticise the government for the first time since the pandemic began. The shipment arrived at Istanbul airport ''en route'' to the UK two days after ministers said the PPE would reach the UK. Only 32,000 gowns arrived—less than one-tenth of the order—despite the NHS making a
down payment
Down payment (also called a deposit in British English), is an initial up-front partial payment for the purchase of expensive items/services such as a car or a house. It is usually paid in cash or equivalent at the time of finalizing the transactio ...
to secure their arrival on 22 April. The PPE shipment was ultimately returned to Turkey because it did not meet NHS standards.
In May, it was learnt almost half of England's doctors sourced their own PPE or relied on donations when none was available through normal NHS channels.
Bypassing the open call for bids
According to ''
Byline Times
''Byline Times'' is a British newspaper and website founded in October 2018 by Peter Jukes and Stephen Colegrave, who are also its executive editors. It is a development of Byline, a crowdfunding and media outlet platform founded in April 201 ...
'', the UK usually publishes an
open call for bids to provide PPE in the ''
Official Journal of the European Union
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their s ...
''. The newspaper said according to EU directives, the government does not have to open up a contract to competition when there is an "extreme urgency" to buy goods or services, and can directly approach companies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Department of Health and Social Care
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwis ...
(DHSC), local NHS bodies and other government agencies directly approached firms to provide services, bypassing the EU's tendering process—in some cases without a "call for competition".
According to ''Byline Times'', emergency procurement procedures under regulation 32(2)(c) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015, which allows for the sourcing of goods without a formal tendering process, were invoked.
On 19 February 2021, the
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...
ruled the government had violated the law by not publishing contract awards within 30 days.
Tendering-process concerns
The
National Audit Office (NAO) said £10.5 billion of the overall £18 billion spent on pandemic-related contracts (58 per cent) was awarded directly to suppliers without competitive tender, with PPE accounting for 80 per cent of the contracts.
The UK government was competing with governments worldwide and, to satisfy the unprecedented demand for PPE, had awarded contracts hastily and bypassed normal competitive tendering processes to secure supplies.
As a result of the NAO report, the
Good Law Project
The Good Law Project is a United Kingdom-based political non-profit company. Founded by Jolyon Maugham, the Good Law Project states that its mission is to achieve change through the law.
History
The Good Law Project was founded in January 2017 as ...
advocacy group opened a number of cases against the DHSC. The Good Law Project questioned the awarding of PPE contracts worth over £250 million to Michael Saiger, who headed an American jewellery company and had no experience in supplying PPE;
the contracts involved a £21 million payment to
intermediary
An intermediary (or go-between) is a third party that offers intermediation services between two parties, which involves conveying messages between principals in a dispute, preventing direct contact and potential escalation of the issue. In law ...
Gabriel González Andersson. The contract was not advertised and there was no competitive tender process.
Transparency International UK found one-fifth of the contracts "raised red flags for possible corruption".
A fast-track "VIP lane", which awarded funding at a rate 10 times higher than other routes, prioritised
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
donors and others connected with the party.
According to a leaked document from the Good Law Project on 16 November 2021 that was published before its planned official release by the government, 47 companies were referred to this route.
Michael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...
referred Meller Designs, which received £164m in PPE contracts, and Liaoning Zhongqiao Overseas Exchange Co, which received a $15m contract for PPE, to this route. A spokesperson for Gove said the referral was not improper.
Matt Hancock
Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 201 ...
referred Excalibur Healthcare, which received contracts worth £135.4m; Nine United, which received a contract worth £80.7m; and Monarch Acoustics, which received a contract worth £28.8m.
Lord Feldman referred SG Recruitment which received £79.6m of contracts; Skinnydip Ltd, which received a contract worth £12.8m; and Maxima Markets, which received a contract worth £1.85m. Feldman told ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' he had no previous knowledge of the companies or commercial relationship with their owners, and that the companies were referred to him by third parties, and he had no knowledge they became fast-tracked.
Lord Agnew
Theodore Thomas More Agnew, Baron Agnew of Oulton, (born 17 January 1961) is a British businessman, Conservative life peer and former Minister of State at the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. He also founded the Inspiration Trust, and is the ...
referred Uniserve–one of the largest recipients of non-open tender pandemic agreements that received eight contracts worth £876m; Worldlink Resource, which received £258m of contracts; and Euthenia Investments, which received a contract worth £880,000). The Cabinet Office said Agnew had been referring companies that approached his office. Uniserve said the DHSC had approached it directly and that it had no connections with Agnew.
Michelle Mone
Michelle Georgina Mone, Baroness Mone, (''née'' Allan; born October 1971) is a British businesswoman and Conservative life peer. She has set up several businesses, including MJM International Ltd in 1996 and the lingerie company Ultimo alo ...
is listed as referring PPE Medpro, which received two contracts worth £202.8m; in 2020, Mone's lawyers had told ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' she did not have "any role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro".
According to ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', the government gave £1.5 billion to companies that are linked to the Conservative Party.
Although the NAO said there was "no evidence" ministers were "involved in either the award or management of the contracts",
companies that had links to government ministers, politicians and health officials were put in a high-priority channel that was fast-tracked; those in it were ten times more likely to win a contract.
In an opinion piece, BBC economics correspondent
Andrew Verity said there was an increased risk contracts would be seen to be "awarded not on merit or value for money but because of personal connections" when fast-tracking occurs.
Alleged cronyism
The Baroness Harding, a Conservative peer and the wife of Conservative MP
John Penrose
John David Penrose (born 22 June 1964) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Weston-super-Mare since 2005. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion at the Home Office fr ...
, was appointed to run
NHS Test and Trace
NHS Test and Trace is a government-funded service in England, established in 2020 to track and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Despite its name, the programme was never in fact run by the NHS: the programme is part of the UK Health Secur ...
,
until the establishment of the
UK Health Security Agency
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a government agency in the United Kingdom, responsible since April 2021 for England-wide public health protection and infectious disease capability, and replacing Public Health England. It is an executiv ...
in April 2021. Harding's appointment was also seen as controversial due to her involvement in organising the
Cheltenham Festival
The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Rac ...
, an annual horse-racing event in early March whose 2020 edition was alleged to be a possible early
superspreading event
A superspreading event (SSEV) is an event in which an infectious disease is spread much more than usual, while an unusually contagious organism infected with a disease is known as a superspreader. In the context of a human-borne illness, a super ...
. In October 2020,
Mike Coupe
Michael Andrew Coupe (born 26 September 1960) is a British businessman who was the CEO of J Sainsbury plc, parent company of the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, from July 2014 until the end of May 2020.
Early life
Coupe was born in Watford, Her ...
, a friend of Harding,
took a three-month appointment as head of infection testing at NHS Test and Trace. The Good Law Project and the
Runnymede Trust
The Runnymede Trust is a race equality think tank in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1968 by Jim Rose and Anthony Lester as an independent source for generating intelligence for a multi-ethnic Britain through research, network building, ...
brought a legal case that alleged Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
acted unlawfully in securing the two contracts, and had chosen the recipients because of their connections to the Conservative Party;
, the case was still ongoing, although previous action over
Kate Bingham
Dame Catherine Elizabeth Bingham (born 19 October 1965), known as Kate Bingham, is a British venture capitalist. She is a managing partner at a venture capital firm, SV Health Investors.
In 2020, Bingham chaired the UK Government's Vaccine T ...
's non-competitive appointment as head of the
vaccine taskforce was dropped. A spokesman for the government told ''The Guardian''; "We do not comment on ongoing legal proceedings."
The DHSC appointed
George Pascoe-Watson
George Pascoe-Watson (born 21 August 1966) is a British journalist and public relations consultant. He was formerly the Political Editor of ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun'' newspaper, succeeding Trevor Kavanagh in January 2006. He currently ...
, chair of
Portland Communications
Portland Communications is a political consultancy and public relations agency set up in 2001 by Tim Allan, a former adviser to Tony Blair and Director of Communications at BSkyB. In 2012 a majority stake in Portland was purchased by Omnicom.
...
, to an unpaid advisory position and he participated in daily strategic discussions that were chaired by
Lord Bethell. Pascoe-Watson sent information about government policy to his clients before it was made public. Conservative peer
Lord O'Shaughnessy was paid as an "external adviser" to the DHSC when he was a paid adviser to Portland Communications. In May 2020, O'Shaughnessy participated in a call with Bethell and
Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...
(BCG), a Portland client that received £21 million in contracts on the
COVID-19 testing
COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2. The two main types of tests detect either the presence of the virus or antibodies produced in response to infection. Molecular tests for viral ...
system.
BCG management consultants were paid up to £6,250 per day to help reorganise the Test and Trace system.
![Randox COVID-19 PCR home test kit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Randox_COVID-19_PCR_home_test_kit.jpg)
Other allegations of cronyism include:
*
Faculty, which worked with
Dominic Cummings
Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020.
From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...
for
Vote Leave
Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leavi ...
during the
Brexit referendum, has received government contracts since 2018. After Boris Johnson became prime minister, Cummings recruited
Ben Warner
Ben Warner is a British data scientist.
Education
Warner earned a PhD at University College London for research investigating single molecule spintronics. The research was supervised by Cyrus Hirjibehedin and was awarded the Marshall Stoneham ...
, a former Faculty employee who worked on Vote Leave, to work with him in
Downing Street
Downing Street is a street in Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, it is long, and a few minutes' walk ...
.
* Hanbury Strategy, a policy and lobbying consultancy, was paid £648,000 for two contracts: one that was awarded under the emergency procedures to research "public attitudes and behaviours" in relation to the pandemic, and one, at a level not requiring a tender, to conduct weekly polling. The company was co-founded by Paul Stephenson, director of communications for Vote Leave and a contender for the post
Downing Street Chief of Staff
The office of Downing Street Chief of Staff is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, acting as a senior aide to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of the office retains a ...
. In March 2019, Hanbury was tasked with assessing job applications for Conservative special advisers.
*
Gina Coladangelo
Gina Lucia Coladangelo is a British businesswoman, lobbyist, and a former non-executive director at the Department of Health and Social Care. Images of Coladangelo and then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock kissing and ...
, a close friend of
Matt Hancock
Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 201 ...
with no-known health background, was paid £15,000 as a non-executive director of the DHSC on a six-month contract; Coladangelo accompanied Hancock to confidential meetings with civil servants although there was no public record of the appointment. She received a parliamentary pass sponsored by Bethell, although she is not part of Bethell's team.
Coladangelo resigned from her position after it was revealed she and Hancock were having an
extramarital affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...
.
*According to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', Alex Bourne, a former neighbour and owner of the Cock Inn public house, which is near Hancock's constituency home, received a contract that involved supplying "tens of millions of vials for NHS Covid-19 tests".
PPE and equipment contracts
In April 2020, Ayanda Capital, a
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
-based investment firm with no prior public-health experience, received a £252 million contract to supply face masks. The contract included an order for 50 million high-strength
FFP2 medical masks that did not meet NHS standards because they had elastic ear loops instead of the required straps that tie behind the wearer's head.
According to the company, they adhered to the specifications they were given.
Andrew Mills, an adviser to the
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
–a branch of
Liz Truss
Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down ...
's
Department for International Trade
The Department for International Trade (DIT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Government responsible for striking and extending trade agreements between the U ...
–whose involvement was criticised by the Good Law Project, arranged the contract.
According to the DIT, neither it nor the Board of Trade was involved in the deal.
![Randox COVID-19 PCR drop-off location](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Randox_COVID-19_PCR_drop-off_location.jpg)
Former
Chairman of the Conservative Party
The chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, formerly Conservative Central Office.
When the Conservatives are in government, the offic ...
Lord Feldman was appointed as an unpaid adviser to Conservative peer
Lord Bethell. Feldman was present when Bethell awarded Meller Designs, which is owned by
David Meller
David Robert Meller (born December 1959) is a British businessman, and the sponsor of an academy trust, and a member of the Department for Education's board of directors, until the scandal surrounding the Presidents Club, of which he was the j ...
, who gave £63,000 to the Conservative Party–mostly when Feldman was chair–£163 million in contracts for PPE on 6 April.
Three days later, Conservative MP and former
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
Owen Paterson
Owen William Paterson (born 24 June 1956) is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2010 to 2012 and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2012 to 2014 under Prime Minist ...
participated in a telephone call with Bethell and
Randox Laboratories, who pay Paterson £100,000 a year as a consultant. The
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap ...
, the biggest sporting event of the
Jockey Club
The Jockey Club is the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the United Kingdom. It owns 15 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and both the Rowley Mile and July Course in Newmarket, amo ...
, whose executive board Harding and Paterson's late wife
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
sat on, is sponsored by Randox, who received £479 million in testing contracts. Orders continued after Randox had to recall 500,000 tests because of safety concerns.
During the
Owen Paterson lobbying scandal, it was reported in March 2020 Randox was awarded a £133 million contract from the DHSC to produce testing kits at a cost of £49 each
with no other firms being given the opportunity to bid for the work. Six months later, a further £347 million contract was awarded to Randox without other companies being able to bid.
[
One of the largest government PPE contracts went to Crisp Websites (trading as PestFix), a business specialising in supplying PPE to protect users from airborne chemicals in pest-control settings.] In April 2020, PestFix secured a contract with the DHSC for a £32 million batch of isolation suits; three months after the contract was signed, suits from PestFix were not released for use in the NHS because they were in an NHS supply-chain warehouse awaiting safety assessments. The Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a UK government agency responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in Great Britain. It is a non-depar ...
(HSE) concluded supplies of PPE had not been specified to the correct standard for use in hospitals when they were bought. That June, an email from a firm working with the HSE in June said there was "'political' pressure" to get the suits through the quality-assurance process. The gowns were approved for use and released to hospitals during mid-2020; HSE chief executive Sarah Albon said claims her organisation was under 'political' pressure to approve PPE were untrue.
In a 25 November 2020 letter, Albon wrote: "At no time in the management of PPE supply have any HSE staff indicated that there were feelings of pressure being applied to make specific decisions, to change decisions, or to accept lower standards than required of PPE". According to Albon, technical assessments sometimes had to be repeated; the gowns' release to hospitals after failing the first inspection did not mean they were unsuitable or unsafe; saying: "In such cases HSE may have asked the supply chain to obtain further information, or to arrange for further testing, to verify the product. In these cases, products that initially had insufficient or incorrect information provided may have been subsequently reassessed and agreed for supply when those gaps had been addressed." The contract was challenged in the courts by the Good Law Project, which asked why the DHSC had agreed to pay 75 per cent in advance when the provider was "wholly unsuited" to deliver such a large and important order. The Good Law Project discovered the company had been awarded PPE contracts worth £313 million.
PPE Medpro controversy
In October 2020 it was revealed that PPE Medpro, a company led by Anthony Page, a business associate of Michelle Mone, Baroness Mone
Michelle Georgina Mone, Baroness Mone, (''née'' Allan; born October 1971) is a British businesswoman and Conservative life peer. She has set up several businesses, including MJM International Ltd in 1996 and the lingerie company Ultimo along ...
and her husband Doug Barrowman, had been awarded a contract for £122 million to supply personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elec ...
(PPE) to the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. Page resigned as secretary for MGM Media, the company that manages and receives payment for Mone's branding and media engagements and on the same day he formed Medpro. In October 2020, a spokeswoman for Mone stated she "has no role or involvement in PPE Medpro", adding: "Mr Barrowman is also not involved in the company PPE Medpro and is not a Director or Shareholder." It later emerged that a second contract for £80 million was awarded to Medpro even earlier when the company was just 4 weeks old.
In November 2021, a Freedom of Information
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigeno ...
request revealed that Mone personally recommended the company to the government through its VIP fast-track lane for firms with political connections and that the company was awarded £200 million in government contracts. This high-priority process was set up in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to bypass the normal competitive tender process for procurement that was considered urgent. It further emerged in January 2022 that Mone recommended Medpro for a government contract five days before the company had been formed. At the time, Mone's lawyers stated that she "was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity" but documents leaked to ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' revealed that a director of the company was a long term employee of Mone's husband's company. WhatsApp
WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows us ...
messages seen by ''The Guardian'' appeared to show Mone discussing the size of garments that formed part of a contract. Lawyers for Mone and her husband denied the allegations.
Following a complaint by the Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
peer George Foulkes, the House of Lords commissioner for standards
There are currently two House of Lords Commissioners for Standards, officers of the United Kingdom House of Lords. When the post was created in 2010 there was a single commissioner who was "responsible for the independent and impartial investigat ...
launched an investigation into the relationship between Mone and Medpro in January 2022. On 27 April 2022, Mone's homes in London and on the Isle of Man
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, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
and associated business addresses were raided by the police, who have launched an investigation into potential fraud. The National Crime Agency
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...
is pursuing a tandem investigation into PPE Medpro.
In November 2022, ''The Guardian'' reported that an Isle of Man trust, of which Mone and her adult children are beneficaries, had received £29 million originating from PPE Medpro via a series of offshore transactions involving Barrowman. Her lawyer had previously said she did not declare PPE Medpro in the House of Lords register of financial interests as "she did not benefit financially and was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity."
Mone also lobbied for LFI Diagnostics, a company established as a secret entity of her husband Barrowman's family office
A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50-$100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer w ...
, Knox family office. A unnamed source told ''The Guardian'' that Mone was "in a class of her own in terms of the sheer aggression of her advocacy" for LFI Diagnostics. On 6 December 2022, Mone's spokesperson said she was taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords with immediate effect "in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her."
On 19 December 2022 it emerged that the government would sue PPE Medpro for £122m plus costs. The government said that medical gowns which were supplied by the company "did not comply with the specification in the contract" and could not be used in the NHS. PPE Medpro said it would "rigorously" defend the claim.Government to sue Mone-linked PPE firm for £122m
''BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
''. 19 December 2022.
See also
*
British government response to the COVID-19 pandemic
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviru ...
*
United Kingdom parliamentary second jobs controversy
The United Kingdom parliamentary second jobs controversy of 2021 began with Owen Paterson and his lobbying and breach of Commons advocacy rules, which led to his resignation on 5 November, and this was followed by extensive press coverage and d ...
*
2021 Downing Street refurbishment controversy
References
{{Rishi Sunak
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom on politics
2020 controversies
Political scandals in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics
2021 controversies
Boris Johnson controversies
Conservative Party (UK) scandals
Rishi Sunak