Coronavirus: Contracts

(asked on 13th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether at any time in 2020 they had a preferred list of suppliers of COVID-19 related products and services; and, if so, what checks were carried out to ensure that no conflicts of interest existed between those companies and ministers or special advisers.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 1st September 2020

Online guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to coronavirus was published on March 18. Public authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. Available options include a direct award due to extreme urgency and direct award due to absence of competition or protection of exclusive rights.

Over 1,000 purchase orders have been awarded to suppliers for COVID-19 related work, the majority through a direct award. There is no single consideration such as previous experience as to whether a supplier is added to the supply chain. The supplier will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. To provide a validated assessment of solely the previous experience for each of the suppliers on each of these contracts would involve disproportionate cost. Contracts are awarded by the appropriate Departmental accounting officer, an official, in line with Department’s terms and conditions which include clauses for contract management to assess performance and value for money throughout the lifetime of the contract.

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