Government 'fast and loose' over Covid contracts

The government failed to fully document processes on the way to awarding Covid testing contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, a report has found.

However, the National Audit Office (NAO) said it found no evidence Department of Health contracts had been awarded improperly.

And it accepted ministers were acting quickly in exceptional circumstances.

But the probe criticised "gaps in the audit trail", with Labour accusing the Government of acting "fast and loose".

Former health secretary Matt Hancock said the report "confirms a total clean bill of health on ministers' work".

When Covid hit, ministers had to scale up testing capacity, working with the private sector to secure both services and supplies, the NAO said.

As part of the operation between January 2020 and December 2021, a total of 22 contracts were awarded to health company Randox, or its strategic partner, Qnostics Ltd, with a maximum value of £776.9m, according to the report.

The NAO said that 60% of the total value of those contracts (£463.5m) was awarded directly without competition, under emergency procurement rules.

But it found the Department of Health did not not "adequately" document key decisions, nor "fully" disclose ministerial meetings with Randox.

The company was first awarded a £132.4m contract for testing services on March 30 2020, explained the NAO, which said it was told by the health department that a competitive tender was ruled out due to the situation's urgency.

However, the NAO said "basic information about the emergency procurement process", including evidence of approvals, was not recorded in the department's systems, with evidence of the decision only available after reviewing several officials' emails.

The watchdog added the government provided it with "incomplete or no documentation" on "other significant aspects of the procurement", including detailed contractual negotiations and consideration of potential conflicts of interest.

Records of meetings also fell under the spotlight of the NAO, which found the Department of Health did not disclose Randox's attendance at four ministerial meetings as it should have done in line with transparency requirements.

The report added minutes were kept for just two of eight meetings on testing that involved ministers and Randox in 2020 and 2021.

Additionally, the NAO focused on messages between then health secretary Matt Hancock and North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson.

Mr Paterson resigned from Parliament in November 2021 after he was found to have broken rules by repeatedly lobbying on behalf of Randox and another company, for which he was acting as a paid consultant.

The NAO said Mr Hancock told them he did not forward all of the messages to his department "as they were not substantive discussions and so he was not required to do so".

The messages were kept by Mr Hancock and made available to Parliament last month, the NAO added.

It concluded that because the Department of Health had not adequately documented key decisions, disclosed ministerial meetings in full, or kept complete records of ministerial discussions involving Randox, the Government was not able to "provide positive assurance in the normal way".

A Government spokesperson said that at the start of the pandemic "every possible step" was taken to build the "largest diagnostic industry in UK history rapidly and from scratch", which, they added, had helped to limit the spread of Covid and save lives.

Contracts with Randox and other suppliers, they said, made a "significant contribution" to the UK's Covid response, adding: "There are robust rules and processes in place to ensure that conflicts of interest do not occur, and all contracts are awarded in line with procurement regulations and transparency guidelines.

"The NAO concludes there is no evidence that the government's contracts with Randox were awarded improperly."

Labour MP Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said: "Government grasped the urgent need to increase the scale of testing early in the pandemic. But while it was fast on procurement, it was fast and loose on process."

Randox said the fact the watchdog found no evidence of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts "vindicates" its insistence that the process was in keeping with official protocols.

With reference to ministerial meetings "which were, apparently, not fully documented", it added: "While we cannot comment on Government minuting of meetings, Randox can categorically state that the awarding of contracts was not on the agenda at any of these meetings."

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