Commons Sense

House of Commons · Westminster Hall

Government Contracts: Covid-19 — [Yvonne Fovargue in the Chair]

21 June 2021 · 6 other contributors · 12,574 words

Opened by Tonia Antoniazzi Lab Gower

Responding minister: Julia Lopez

NHS

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Tonia Antoniazzi raised concerns about government contracts: covid-19 — [yvonne fovargue in the chair] in Westminster Hall. A government minister responded.

Key points

  • Tonia Antoniazzi raises concerns about lack of transparency and accountability in awarding government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Antoniazi asks the Minister to confirm if due diligence was conducted before contracts were signed with companies like Chartwells and Edenred.
  • The Minister acknowledges the public's right to demand careful spending in procurement and agrees on the importance of transparency.

Key requests to Government

Antoniazzi asks the Minister to confirm whether due diligence was carried out before signing contracts with companies like Chartwells and Edenred, which faced significant criticism over their performance. She urges the Government to address questions regarding value for money in the spending of public funds on contracts during the pandemic.

How the debate unfolded

MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said.

Opened the debate

Tonia Antoniazzi Lab Gower

Tonia Antoniazzi is concerned about the lack of transparency and accountability in the awarding of government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic. She cites examples where contracts worth millions were awarded without competitive tender processes, benefiting associates of senior politicians such as Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove. Transparency International's report criticises the procurement response for being opaque and uncompetitive, with a suspiciously high number of awards going to those with political connections.

Other contributors (6)
  • Adam Holloway Con Islwich and Woodbridge

    Defended his constituent Samir Jassal, arguing that the narrative suggesting Jassal obtained £100 million in business due to political connections is absurd. Emphasised that there was intense global competition for PPE during the pandemic and highlighted the role of entrepreneurs and civil servants as heroes. Holloway intervened to express his support for an inquiry but argued against claims of corruption based on financial contributions from local businesses. He pointed out the complexity and scale of the pandemic response, suggesting that such claims are exaggerated. The member questioned the plausibility of Matt Hancock awarding a £103 million contract to someone based on their political connections. On Samir Jassal, Adam Holloway stated that the PPE procurement process was preposterous and highlighted an incident where it took over a month to triage whether offered PPE was suitable. Asked if civil servants were pressured by ministers to give contracts to Samir Jassal for £4,000 and questioned whether those involved in the process were caught up in corruption. Highlighted that entrepreneurs should be considered heroes during a global emergency.

  • Catherine West Lab Hornsey and Friern Barnet

    Ms West criticised the Government's approach to contracting during the pandemic, citing waste, cronyism, and a lack of transparency. She mentioned that over £22 billion was spent on Test and Trace while only £3.50 per week extra was allocated for NHS staff. She highlighted legal rulings against the Government's handling of contract publication and called for urgent action to increase transparency and stop public funds from being wasted.

  • Deidre Brock SNP Glasgow North West

    Brock thanked petitioners for raising important issues and highlighted the need for transparency in government contracts awarded during the pandemic. She criticised the lack of clarity on where public money went and the potential for cronyism. She also questioned the adequacy of procurement processes used by the UK Government, calling for an independent inquiry into PPE procurement. Deidre Brock asked if the Minister would address questions about record-keeping between Departments and cost recovery from unsuccessful contracts, seeking clarity on future transparency in these matters.

  • Fleur Anderson Lab Putney

    The MP is concerned about the lack of transparency and potential corruption in the Government's handling of contracts during the pandemic. The MP cites examples of companies without proper certification being awarded contracts, highlighting a £280 million order for masks that did not meet standards and a £100 million expenditure on gowns without technical checks. The MP also mentions Serco's profit increase from Test and Trace work and calls for an independent public inquiry.

  • Kate Osborne Lab Jarrow and Gateshead East

    The Government's approach to procurement during the pandemic has been marked by cronyism and waste of taxpayer money, with £18 billion awarded in emergency contracts. Only £0.2 billion was competitively tendered, leading to quality issues such as non-compliant face masks and biased contract awards. The cost to defend unlawful actions exceeded the value of the original contract. Osborne called for transparent documentation and publication of all contracts, questioning whether procurement had been fair and represented value for money.

  • Neale Hanvey SNP Dumfries and Galloway

    Mr. Hanvey questioned the Government's decision to contract Chinese providers for lateral flow devices, despite serious doubts about their reliability since November 2020. He highlighted that these tests may be unsuitable for asymptomatic individuals and could pose risks in care homes. He also pointed out that UK manufacturers have been sidelined while potentially dangerous contracts are awarded. Neale Hanvey questioned whether there was a perception of impropriety in contract handling, referencing a case involving Uniserve Limited and Cabinet Minister Julia Lopez MP's constituency, raising concerns about conflict of interest based on public perception.

Government Response

Julia Lopez

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Fovargue. I thank all hon. Members who have taken part in this evening's e-petition debate for their valuable contributions. I also thank the petitioners for initiating it. The public are absolutely right to demand that we spend money with care when we procure vital goods, services and works; I agree with the hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) and others on that. I have always set out to be open about the challenges that the Government had to navigate at the height of the pandemic in procuring goods and services in the most urgent of situations. We were required to move at great speed and in an incredibly complex operating environment. The work includes an external, independent and unbiased review by the National Audit Office, two internal Cabinet Office reviews that have now been published, the commitment to a public inquiry into covid that starts next spring, and—a new procurement Bill that my ministerial colleague Lord Agnew and I are drafting, which will provide commercial teams with many more extensive options in a crisis between direct award, which raises understandable transparency concerns, and full-fat procurement, which takes far too long to turn around. The fastest turnaround under the dynamic purchasing system is six to eight weeks to contract award, and on an accelerated basis the very quickest possible process would be two weeks. But that would assume that all bid documentation was in place at the start, so it can be seen that in urgent situations this presents a real challenge. Faced with exceptional levels of global demand, the usual vendors in China who service the NHS's central procurement function very quickly ran out of supply and the world descended on a few factories in that country to bid for available items. In that market context, the Government needed to procure with extreme urgency, often through direct award of contracts, or risk missing out on vital supplies. We have established one of the largest and most diversified vaccine portfolios in the world. We have ordered 32 billion items of PPE and provided more than 15,000 ventilators to the NHS. The focus on those early procurement challenges secured some tremendous successes under pressure but also had challenges. All PPE offers, no matter from where they came, went through the same eight-stage checks. We have already published all known contract award notices and the contract documents for all historical covid-related contracts as a result of High Court judgment in relation to the DHSC's failure to publish some contracts. The Cabinet Office has also now published all Cabinet Office contracts that related to the regulation 32 procedure on direct awards.

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