A court has heard that ministers “lobbied” officials to chase the progress of contracts for the supply of personal protective equipment that were being processed through a government “VIP lane” … Read more
Commissioning
The High Court has heard how the NatWest suspended Matt Hancock’s team from making payments to PPE suppliers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic over fears they were being … Read more
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has paid out more than £38 million after reneging on a pre-contract arrangement with a provider of COVID-19 testing services. An NHS … Read more
The government has been urged to publish details of up to £2bn in Covid-19 contracts to provide extra capacity during the pandemic awarded to private healthcare companies, including some that have … Read more
Guidance recently issued by NHS England could lead to entire networks of diagnostic imaging services being run by the private sector. NHS trusts have until 2023 to set up separate entities to … Read more
Research carried out by the Labour Party shows that more than £96bn of health service funding has gone to non-NHS providers of care over the last decade, with the amount … Read more
A report by Transparency International UK said a “seriously flawed” arrangement, whereby companies bidding for contracts were prioritised if they were referred into a “VIP lane” by their political connections, … Read more
Spire Healthcare has stated that it is “cautiously optimistic” that trading and profits will bounce back to 2019 levels after reporting income down by 6.2% to £920m during 2020, not least because … Read more
Sir David King, a former government chief scientist, in an interview in The Guardian has accused Boris Johnson’s government of corruption, privatising the NHS by stealth, operating a “chumocracy” and … Read more
Imperial College Healthcare trust has decided to keep hotel services, which includes porters, cleaners and catering, inhouse across its sites, after the success of a one-year trial. Until early 2020 … Read more
Byline Times and The Citizens overview of contract awards reveals that one year after the first COVID-19 lockdown almost a billion pounds in Government contracts has been awarded to 15 … Read more
Boris Johnson told MPs that Covid contracts were “on the record for everyone to see”, despite the fact that dozens of Covid contracts had not been published at the time. … Read more
The Guardian has reported that a PR firm owned by Matthew Freud, who was closely associated with the Conservatives during David Cameron’s time as prime minister, was awarded a contract to provide … Read more
The Metro reports that a £91million contract between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and a Chinese PPE firm was only published a day after the Government was … Read more
Ministers and NHS management are becoming increasingly dependent on costly private sector management consultants to do the work that managers and civil servants were previously trained and expected to do … Read more
Hinpack, which is owned by Alex Bourne, an acquaintance of Matt Hancock and the former landlord of his local pub, which won a contract to produce Covid test vials for the NHS is … Read more
A high court judge has ruled that the health secretary, Matt Hancock, acted unlawfully by failing to publish multibillion-pound Covid-19 government contracts within the 30-day period required by law. The judge, … Read more
Transparency in public office is essential to any democracy, but the UK government’s aversion to scrutiny of its procurement track record during the pandemic – an aversion now the focus … Read more
A leaked version of the new NHS White Paper has confirmed the government’s plan to remove the much criticised competition rules, which allow commercial companies to bid for a vast array of … Read more
The Times reports that Andrew Mills, a former government adviser who brokered the bungled £250 million PPE contract with Ayanda Capital, has used an obscure change in company status to … Read more
