Covid-19 contracts with the private sector

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By March 2022, the UK government had awarded £46.7 bn worth of contracts related to the coronavirus crisis to private companies since March 2020, according to data collected by Tussell, a data provider that tracks state contracts across all areas of public services. The vast majority of these contracts have been awarded without a competitive tender.

About 58% of these contracts relating to Covid-19 have been signed by the government to secure products and supplies. The contracts cover a whole range of products, including medical equipment, tests, personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers, and drugs to treat Covid-19 patients. About 41% of the contracts relate to services to support the response to Covid-19, including call centres for contact tracing (test and trace), plus contracts for advising the government on its response to the pandemic.

The table below outlines many of the contracts that have been covered in the media.

Emergency contract tendering and transparency

The vast majority of contracts awarded for products and services related to Covid-19 were awarded under emergency procedures, under which no competitive tender process has to take place.

In November 2020, the National Audit Office (NAO) published two damning reports on the government's buying and outsourcing procedures since March. The reports criticised the use of 'VIP' channels for companies that had connections with MPs, the Conservative party and its contacts, and also the massive amount of money wasted on buying PPE.

A summary of the NAO reports can be found here.

Whilst there appears to be some good reasons for using the emergency procedure in March 2020, they were still being used over a year later. An article in the FT in April 2021 noted that there is growing concern that there has not been a return to open competitive tenders, in particular given the NAO reports highlighting that there was a risk that continuing with the emergency procedures would "undermine public trust." In November 2021, the Labour Party questioned why the system was still in place, saying in a letter to the Cabinet Office “that while there had been a reason to introduce the procedures at the peak of the emergency, they brought a risk of conflicts of interest and unsuitable suppliers being used.”

The use of the emergency procedures meant that the process of awarding the contracts became opaque. The government departments involved, however, still had to publish the final award notice either on the Contracts Finder database or the TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) database, both accessible to the public, within 30 days of the award. Despite these rules, many award notices have not been published yet and are well overdue, others were published late.

The Good Law Project took the government to court over the delays in publishing the contract award notices. The GLP together with a cross-party group of MPs – Caroline Lucas (Green), Debbie Abrahams (Labour) and Layla Moran (LibDem) – took legal action against the Government for its persistent and unlawful failure to disclose details of COVID-related contracts.

At the start of March 2021, the High Court ruled that the Government had acted unlawfully by failing to publish Covid contracts. The High Court ruled “The Secretary of State acted unlawfully by failing to comply with the Transparency Policy” and that “there is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the Secretary of State breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices within 30 days of the award of contracts.”

However, just three days later Boris Johnson stood up in the House of Commons and reassured MPs and the public that all Covid-related contracts were “on the record”. The final Order handed down by the Judge, however, shows that what the Prime Minister told the House was not true.

There are many more questions about how the tendering for contracts related to Covid-19 products and services have been carried out, in particular allegations of cronyism - the awarding of contracts to companies with links to the Conservative party, government and other political figures.

Corruption and cronyism

The NAO reports released in November 2020, highlighted how companies with political connections were ten times more likely to be awarded a contract than companies that did not have such connections. This has led to accusations of corruption and cronyism.

The government split the procurement system into two channels – a high-priority channel (VIP) for companies with political connections, such as links with government officials, ministers’ offices, MPs and members of the House of Lords, senior NHS staff and other health professionals, and a second channel for those companies without connections to such people.

Companies in the high-priority channel were automatically regarded as more credible, which is in contrast to normal practice when such contacts would be subject to additional scrutiny due to issues of conflict of interest. The NAO also found that there were no written rules for how the high-priority channel should operate.

The system operating seems to have allowed for the awarding of contracts to companies for inexplicable reasons, for example, companies that have no history of PPE procurement or production were given vast contracts. A good example is one given for £108m to Pestfix a tiny pest control company with net assets of £18,000. Yet another £108m went to a modestly sized confectioner in Northern Ireland, Clandeboye Agencies. And another contract, worth £252m, was awarded to Ayanda, an opaque private fund owned through a tax haven. There is no evidence that any of these companies had previously had any experience in supplying PPE.

To add to the murkiness of the contract awards situation, in June 2021, it was revealed that Matt Hancock and James Bethell both used personal email addresses to conduct business, including PPE and related contracts. Number 10 had previously denied that this happened. The Guardian revealed that a number of emails were copied into Lord Bethell’s private email account, including at least four official exchanges relating to a businessman who was attempting to get government contracts during the pandemic. The Good Law Project has obtained copies of Hancock's and Bethell's emails.

The Good Law Project requested the list of companies that had been recommended by politicians for inclusion on the VIP or high-priority list. On 18 October 2021, the Information Commissioner ordered the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to disclose the names of the 47 companies on the VIP list to the Good Law Project within 35 calendar days.

In November 2021, a leaked document revealed which Conservative MPs and Peers funnelled companies through the ‘VIP lane’ for lucrative PPE contracts, without competition. Around £1.6 billion worth of contracts were awarded as a result of referrals from just ten politicians at the heart of the Conservative party. The leaked list of the 47 companies in the VIP lane published by the Good Law Project can be found here.

Michael Gove MP, Matt Hancock MP, Esther McVey MP, and Steve Brine MP are among the Conservative politicians who referred companies to the VIP lane. The Good Law Project has highlighted that although the government claims that the VIP lane for PPE contracts “was widely advertised across Government as a way of more quickly triaging offers of support”, the list of companies in the ‘VIP lane’ shows that no other political party successfully referred companies via this route.

In October 2020, three cross-party MPs, Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran and Debbie Abrahams, and the Good Law Project, filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argued that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes, in particular the VIP lane. In November 2020, the High Court gave permission to bring the challenge against the decision to award the contracts. The case began in April 2021.

In January 2022, the High Court ruled that the Government’s operation of a fast-track VIP lane for awarding lucrative PPE contracts to those with political connections was unlawful.

“the Claimants have established that operation of the High Priority Lane was in breach of the obligation of equal treatment… the illegality is marked by this judgment.”

The Judge agreed the VIP lane conferred preferential treatment on bids: it sped up the process, which meant offers were considered sooner in a process where timing was critical, and VIPs’ hands were held through the process.

In November 2022, The Guardian reported on the links between the Conservative peer Michelle Mone and PPE Medpro and how her family had profited from contracts, despite her having denied profiting from her connection to the company. Documents seen by the paper suggest that her husband passed on money from PPE Medpro, which secured £200m contracts after Mone lobbied ministers. Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of the PPE business. Mone’s support helped the company, PPE Medpro, secure a place in a “VIP lane” and secured contracts worth more than £200m. Mone did not list her financial connection to the company in her House of Lords Register of Interests and told the Guardian, via her lawyer, in 2021 that it was because she did not receive any money from the company.

The bank documents leaked to The Guardian state that Mone’s husband, the Isle of Man-based financier Douglas Barrowman, was paid at least £65m in profits from PPE Medpro, and then distributed the funds through a series of offshore accounts, trusts and companies. The ultimate recipients of the funds, the documents indicate, include the Isle of Man trust that was set up to benefit Mone and her children. According to the documents, in October 2020 Barrowman transferred £28.8m to the trust that originating from PPE Medpro profits. In September 2022, HMRC issued a winding-up petition against PPE Medpro, apparently for unpaid taxes. No details were stated as to how much tax is claimed to be owed, nor for how long it has been outstanding.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also served to highlight the lack of transparency and the cronyism in the way people are appointed to top positions. The most notable example is the appointment of Dido Harding to head the test and trace service, despite a lack of experience. Her appointment seemed to reflect her contacts with government ministers, in particular Matt Hancock, and her husband being a Conservative MP. The Runnymede Trust and Good Law Project are challenging the appointment of Dido Harding, as well as a string of other appointments which were made with seemingly no advertisement or fair recruitment process.

The issue of corruption and cronyism surfaced again in August 2021, when it was revealed by The Good Law Project (GLP) that companies applying for approved status for Covid-19 testing for travellers and for others in need of rapid PCR testing were asked if they had a ‘sponsor’ who is a ‘Member of Parliament or Minister’ and to name them. The Good Law Project notes that:

"The fact of a Minister ‘sponsoring’ your application is – or should be – irrelevant to your prospects of gaining authorisation. It is hard to see any reason – beyond a desire to red carpet those lucky enough to be on good terms with Government Ministers."

The GLP also noted that many of the firms operating in the PCR testing market have ties to the Conservative Party. Several of these companies have poor results and, according to an article in The Guardian have "left a trail of unhappy holidaymakers complaining that the testing kits, or the results from those kits, often failed to arrive as promised."

The table below contains details of many of the companies and the contracts where there are issues.

Covid-19 contracts in the news

Company	Value	Product/Service	Notes
Ayanda Capital	£253 mn	Face masks	Ayanda Capital Limited, a family investment firm, is controlled by the Horlick family via a holding company registered in the tax haven of Mauritius. The company has connections to Liz Truss. Tim Horlick, former investment banker, is chief executive of Ayanda Capital. The deal was brokered by Andrew Mills, who served as an unpaid adviser to the Board of Trade, chaired by Liz Truss. The Times reported in January 2021 that Mr Mills has used an obscure change in company status to avoid having to disclose details of how much he made from the deal. Ayanda Capital describes itself as specialising in “currency trading, offshore property, private equity and trade financing”. The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor challenged the government on this contract, one with PestFix and another with Clandeboyes (see below). In a legal letter to EveryDoctor and the Good Law Project received in August 2020, the government said that 43.5 mn masks supplied by Ayanda Capital were unsuitable as they had ear-loops, rather than head-loops, and cannot be used by the NHS. The letter also made clear that the initial approach to the government was made by Andrew Mills, an adviser to the international trade secretary, Liz Truss. This contract is now the subject of legal action over the government’s failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic. In October 2020, three cross-party MPs, Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran and Debbie Abrahams, and the Good Law Project, a non-profit-making organisation, filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argued that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes. In November 2020, the High Court gave permission to bring the challenge against the decision to award the contracts. Ayanda Capital was on the VIP list of contacts to be considered by government for contracts due to its links to politicians.
Clandeboye Agencies Ltd	£108 mn (total value of two contracts)	Gowns	The Government has awarded two contracts to Clandeboye, a wholesaler of sweets. There is no evidence that the company has any experience in supplying PPE. The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor have challenged the government on the awarding of these contracts, together with the contract awards to Ayanda Capital and PestFix. These contracts are now the subject of legal action over the government’s failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic. In October 2020, three cross-party MPs, Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran and Debbie Abrahams, and the Good Law Project, a non-profit-making organisation, filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argued that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes. In November 2020, the High Court gave permission to bring the challenge against the decision to award the contracts. Clandeboye Agencies was on the VIP list of contacts to be considered by government for contracts due to its links to politicians, according to documents released in the court case involving The Good Law Project.
PestFix (Crisp Websites Ltd)	Difficult to determine the exact money involved as only one contract worth £32 mn out of 11 contracts awarded has been published.	PPE	PestFix had no previous experience with the provision of PPE. When awarded the contracts the company only had 16 employees and net assets of £18,000. The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor have challenged the government on the awarding of these contracts, together with the contract awards to Ayanda Capital and Clandeboyes. These contracts are the subject of legal action over the government’s failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic. In October 2020, three cross-party MPs, Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran and Debbie Abrahams, and the Good Law Project, a non-profit-making organisation, filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argued that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes. In November 2020, the High Court gave permission to bring the challenge against the decision to award the contracts. PestFix was on the VIP list of contacts to be considered by government for contracts due to its links to politicians. In May2021 it was revealed in court that Crisp Websites Ltd was allocated to the VIP list because a former Pestfix director was an “old school friend” of the father-in-law of Steve Oldfield, chief commercial officer of The Department of Health and Social Care.
Serco	£108 mn up to £410 mn £45m rising to £90m for a Department of Work and Pensions helpline for people shielding from the virus, £45m for test sites, and £1m to help the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to run a business helpline in the light of COVID-led increased demand. Up to £322mn for 12 months from June 2021	Test and Trace	Serco was initially contracted for £108 mn for fourteen weeks up from the contract start date up to the 23rd August, with the option to extend for a longer period up to a value of £410 mn in total. The contract was directly awarded to Serco by the Crown Commercial Service on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DoHSC) in May. It was not put out to open tender but selected via an existing framework of suppliers. According to openDemocracy, Serco’s separate COVID contact tracing contract allows Serco to “refine” its own service level agreements, oversee its own monitoring, and also rules out automatic penalties for underperformance. The lack of penalty clauses was confirmed by health minister, Helen Whately, in October 2020. Serco also holds two further COVID-related contracts totalling nearly £100 mn: a Department of Work and Pensions helpline for people shielding, and assistance with a business helpline. In June 2021 Serco was awarded a new contract worth up to £322 million to continue running Covid-19 testing sites for another year. The contract is to operate regional, local and mobile testing centres in England and Northern Ireland. Serco’s Track and Trace has been heavily criticised, but despite this the company’s contract has been renewed (£57 mn). In December 2020, a Guardian investigation found that Serco had subcontracted the work to 21 smaller companies, who were using untrained staff.
Globus (Shetland) UK Ltd	£99.3 mn	FFP3 Respirators	Globus Shetland is owned by Haraldur Agustsson, whose companies have donated more than £425,000 to the Conservative party. In September 2020, 18 days after a donation of £10,000 to the Conservative party Globus Shetland was awarded a £94 mn contract to supply respirators. Haraldur Agustsson is a member of the ‘Leader’s Group’, which gives him access to Conservative politicians in exchange for large donations to the party. Agustsson’s other company, Alpha Solway, has also won £10 million in six COVID-related contracts.
Randox	£133 mn £347 mn	Tests	In March 2020, Randox was awarded a £133 mn contract to produce testing kits for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Under the contract, the kits are sent to the public and places such as care homes and then delivered back to Randox to check swabs to see if individuals have the virus. In July 2020, the testing kits were withdrawn after safety problems were discovered. The firm has employed Owen Paterson, a former Conservative cabinet minister and leading Brexit supporter, as a consultant since 2015. He is currently paid £100,000 a year at the rate of £500 an hour. In November 2020 it was revealed that a 6 month extension contract worth £347 m had been awarded to Randox. In July 2022, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee produced a damning report on the awarding of contracts to Randox. The report noted that the Department of Health did not investigate obvious conflict of interest and the government officials played “fast and loose” when awarding £777m in Covid contracts.
Sitel	£84.2 mn up to £310 mn	Test and Trace	Sitel had a contract for £84.2 mn for the initial fourteen week period and £310 mn in total if it were extended. The figures were revealed in redacted contracts published at the end of September 2020.
Deloitte	Unknown	Test centres management and advice on PPE purchasing	By October 2020, more than 1000 Deloitte consultants were working on Test and Trace at rates of up to £2,360 per day. Deloitte has been criticised for focusing on purchasing PPE from China and fashion brands and ignoring UK suppliers.
Management consultants - McKinsey, PWC, KPMG, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)	Bill for private consultants was at £175 mn in mid October	Advice	The top Covid supplier by volume is PWC, with 20 contracts worth £24 million. McKinsey’s 16 projects add up to £38 million. KPMG was paid almost £1 million for three months’ work on the Nightingale hospital in Harrogate. Media reports state that the government paid BCG around £10 mn for a team of around 40 consultants to do four months' work on the testing system between the end of April and late August. Consultants could have been paid around £7000 per day.
Double Dragon	£2.15 mn	Masks	This contract to supply medical and surgical facemasks to the NHS was given to a company, that records show had net assets of £24,000 last year and describes itself as a wholesaler of coffee, tea, cocoa and spices. Media reports state it has a website advertising its “new 2020 collection of surgical facemasks” and describes itself as a certified supplier to the NHS of medical-grade equipment. However, much of the website includes dummy text, journalists found that the phone number did not work and the company’s business premises are on a residential street in Ilford, Essex.
SG Recruitment UK	£50 mn	Gowns	A healthcare recruitment firm awarded around £50 mn in contracts to provide protective coveralls to healthcare workers. The award was despite a “going concern” warning from its auditors five months earlier, flagging that the company’s liabilities exceeded its current assets by £376,000. The auditors signed off the accounts in December despite the warning because SG had “continuing financial support” from its parent company, Sumner Group Holdings. According to leaked documents, Lord Feldman referred SG Recruitment to the VIP lane. The Conservative Peer Lord Chadlington sits on the Board of its parent company, Sumner Group Holdings Limited.
P14 Medical Ltd	£120 mn (2 contracts) £156 mn	Face shields, Gowns and other PPE	This small, loss-making firm run by Steve Dechan, a Conservative councillor in Stroud, has been awarded three huge contracts, two for face shields and other equipment, and one for gowns. The firm suffered significant financial losses in 2019, and its previous track record in PPE procurement is unclear. The company was reported to have just 8 employees. P14 Medical was on the VIP list of contacts to be considered by government for contracts due to its links to politicians. This was revealed in April 2021 in documents disclosed in a court case involving The Good Law Project.
PPE Medpro Ltd	£122 mn £81 mn	PPE	A new £100 company with no obvious qualifications to supply PPE. It won the first contract worth £122m just 7 weeks after it was set up. It has also been awarded a second £81m contract for PPE. The company is run by a former business associate of Tory peer Baroness Mone. Medpro was started by Anthony Page on the day he quit as the secretary of the company that deals with Baroness Mone’s “brand”. The company also has links to the Isle of Man. Since then the company has refused to disclose who its investors are. It was also unclear how the company's bid was processed via the VIP channel for companies with political connections. In November 2021 a list of companies processed in the VIP channel was leaked and showed Baroness Mone's input. In November 2022, the Guardian saw leaked documents that showed how Mone and her family profited from PPE Medpro by over £29m and its transfer to offshore accounts. Mone has always denied receiving money from the company. In September 2022, HMRC filed a winding-up petition on PPE Medpro due to unpaid taxes.
Private hospitals	Around £1.6 bn	Extra staff and capacity	Circle (which acquired BMI Healthcare in 2019) and Spire were each given contracts worth around £350 mn for services. Other large contracts are Ramsay Health Care £271.1 mn, Nuffield Health £165.2 mn, , HCA International £153.2 mn, Care UK £76.3 mn, and Aspen Healthcare £41.6 mn. Other companies received smaller amounts.
Tower Supplies	£20.25 mn	Coveralls	The Good Law Project reports that Tower Supplies is not a legal entity. The government has spent at least £708 mn on coveralls, which at the rate they are used is enough to last 36 years. Contracts, including this one, were given without competition to small companies.
Medicine Box Ltd	£40 mn	Coveralls	Micro company with net assets of only £48,840. Highlighted by The Good Law Project. The government has spent at least £708 mn on coveralls, which at the rate they are used is enough to last 36 years. Contracts, including this one, were given without competition to small companies.
Initia Ventures Ltd	£32.56 mn £16.28 mn	Coveralls	Identified by the Good Law Project as a dormant company with net assets of £100. Despite this it was awarded 2 contracts. The government has spent at least £708 mn on coveralls, which at the rate they are used is enough to last 36 years.
Unispace	£239.6 mn	Coveralls	Highlighted by The Good Law Project as a company with links to the Plymouth Brethren, an evangelical Christian church. The government has spent at least £708 mn on coveralls, which at the rate they are used is enough to last 36 years. Contracts, including this one, were given without competition to small companies.
Fleetwood Strategy	£124,000	Reported as “research into government communications for Covid-19 updates”.	A political consultancy co-founded by Isaac Levido who headed the Conservative party’s general election campaign. It was given the contract by the Cabinet Office without a competitive tender. The contract was only published six months after being awarded.
Abingdon Health	£10 mn £75 mn	Rapid virus antibody testing	The Good Law Project has found that the Government suppressed an official report that proved there were issues with rapid antibody tests purchased by the Department of Health. Leaked emails reveal the Government blocked Public Health England from publishing their findings until after they could make an announcement that they had purchased one million antibody tests from Abingdon Health. The Good Law Project has issued judicial review proceedings in respect of the Abingdon Health contract awards. The GLP's case rests on the following grounds: 1. Government’s apparent failure to conduct any lawful or sufficient inquiry or evaluation of the accuracy of the rapid antibody tests. 2. The award of these contracts seemingly without any advertisement or competition between bidders. In June 2021 emails published by The Sunday Times, showed that Health Minister Lord Bethell held a ‘private meeting’ with Abingdon Health on 1 April 2020 without disclosing this meeting in its transparency data. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is required to publish quarterly schedules of ministerial meetings with outside companies, but the 1 April meeting with Abingdon is missing from the departmental records covering the period of April to June 2020. Lord Bethell held two further meetings with Abingdon Health on 29 April 2020 and 13 May 2020 – these were declared by the DHSC. Abingdon Health went on to secure two contracts from the DHSC totalling £85million – both deals were awarded without any competition.
Meller Designs	£160 mn	PPE	Meller Designs is run by David Meller a large Tory donor and trustee of the right wing lobby group Policy Exchange. In April 2021 it was revealed in documents made public at a court case brought by The Good Law Project that Meller Designs was on the VIP list of contracts that got preferential consideration for contracts due to political connections. In November 2021 leaked documents revealed that Michael Gove referred the company to the VIP lane. David Meller has donated nearly £60,000 to the Tory party since 2009, including £3,250 to support Gove’s party leadership bid in 2016. Meller worked on Gove's campaign as chair of finance.
Luxe Lifestyle	£26 mn	PPE	Luxe Lifestyle, CEO Karen Brost, was awarded a £26m contract despite appearing to be insolvent and without any employees. In April 2021 it was revealed in documents made public at a court case brought by The Good Law Project that Luxe Lifestyle was on the VIP list of contracts that got preferential consideration for contracts due to political connections.
1 Rapid Clinics	Approved by government to charge the public for Covid-19 PCR testing	PCR testing	1 Rapid Clinics was incorporated in December 2020 by Dr Ashraf Chohan and has a ‘poor’ rating on trust pilot with users labelling their service as “terrible” and “unprofessional”. Dr Chohan is chairman of the ‘Conservative Friends of the NHS’, a Party donor and a member of the Party’s ‘treasury team’. He has also been snapped at events with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, and a host of other senior Conservative Party figures.
Quick Clinics	Approved by government to charge the public for Covid-19 PCR testing	PCR testing	Founded Jamal Chohan, Dr Chohan's son (see above). It also has a ‘poor’ rating amongst consumers, who have labelled the firm “dishonest and avaricious”.
Qured	Approved by government to charge the public for Covid-19 PCR testing	PCR testing	Qured has been labelled a “joke” and a “fraud” by UK travellers let down by the firm. Qured’s company name is Health Technologies Ltd and the firm appointed Stephen John Oakly Catlin as a director in April 2020. Catlin is a major Conservative Party donor and has given the party £450,000, including £50,000 in February 2021. Mr Catlin is also a member of the Conservative Party “Leader’s Group” – an elite Conservative dining club whose members get direct access to Boris Johnson.
Immensa Health Clinic Ltd	£170 m in test and trace contracts	PCR testing, but not accredited by the Ukas	Set up in May 2020 and very soon after given large contracts for PCR testing as part of test & trace. In October 2021 operations at the Wolverhampton lab were suspended as it was found the company had given out 43,000 incorrect test results between 8 September and 12 October. The £120m contract did not go to tender under rules allowing urgent responses to the pandemic. It received a further £50m contract in July 2021.
Uniserve	£304 mn (PPE) £572 mn (logistics) More than £124 mn	PPE PPE logistics Storage of excess PPE	Cabinet Office Minister Lord Agnew referred Uniserve to the VIP lane, according to leaked documents in November 2021. Uniserve is one of the largest beneficiaries of Covid procurement. The company was awarded £304 million in PPE contracts via the VIP Lane, alongside its existing £572 million contract to handle PPE logistics. More recently, Uniserve has been paid over £124 million (£1 million/day) to store excess PPE.