Protective Clothing: Coronavirus

(asked on 22nd February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2020 to Question 118115 and with reference to the High Court ruling of 18 February 2021 that the Secretary of State acted unlawfully by failing to comply with the Transparency Policy, if he will publish the names of the companies awarded contracts after being introduced to a high-priority lane by (a) Ministers, (b) hon. Members or Peers and (c) officials, including the private office of the Permanent Secretary of his Department; setting out (i) the relationship between each company and the minister, member, peer or official responsible for introducing them to the priority lane; (ii) material, financial or fiduciary interests between those parties; and (iii) whether any such interest between those parties was declared or recorded; and (iv) how those interests were assessed.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 22nd March 2021

We do not intend to publish the list of suppliers referred through the high priority lane as there may be associated commercial implications. The Department has to consider the position of suppliers which were referred to the high priority channel in terms of the recognition that disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position, their revenue and ability to obtain future contracts.

The High Court ruling of 19 February 2021 concerned the Department’s compliance with publishing the Contract Award Notices for all contracts awarded to suppliers of personal protective equipment. The ruling found that Contract Award Notices were not all published within in 30 days as per the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or 20 days as per the Cabinet Office guidance. The Department takes its transparency requirements very seriously and as such has now published most of the Contract Award Notices and the contracts themselves.

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