A legal action has been launched over the UK government’s failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic, as it emerged that it has failed to account for £3bn spent on private contracts since the start of lockdown. According to a report in The Guardian, three cross-party MPs and Good Law Project, a non-profit organisation, have filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argue that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes.
Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, Labour’s Debbie Abrahams and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran say that, despite the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) disclosing in September that at least £11bn worth of contracts have been awarded by the department since April, related predominantly to coronavirus, fresh analysis by data analysts Tussell shows that over £3bn worth of these contracts have not been made public.
The DHSC has said due diligence was carried out on all government contracts which have been awarded. The government has 21 days to respond to the judicial review proceedings. Moran said: “It is totally unacceptable for the government to avoid scrutiny during a public health crisis.”
The legal challenge is being crowdfunded with the support of 38 Degrees and Good Law Project.
Jolyon Maugham QC, director of Good Law Project, said: “What we know about the government's procurement practices during this pandemic gives real cause for concern. Huge sums of public money have been awarded to companies with no discernible expertise.”
A report in The Independent quotes Maugham as saying: “Sometimes the main qualification seems to be a political connection with key government figures. And I have seen evidence that government is sometimes paying more to buy the same product from those with political connections. We are left with no option but to push for transparency through the courts.”
Lucas added: “When billions of pounds of public money is handed out to private companies, some of them with political connections but no experience in delivering medical supplies, Ministers should be explaining why those companies were awarded the contracts. It's completely unacceptable that, as an MP, I'm prevented from being able to scrutinise those decisions.”
Abrahams said: “Transparency is crucial for effective scrutiny and will only improve our response to this crisis. The persistent failure to publish the details of COVID contracts leads you to wonder what this government has got to hide.”
[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/11/mps-launch-legal-action-against-uk-government-over-covid-contracts"]Full report in The Guardian[/link]
[link url="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-contracts-transparency-covid-caroline-lucas-b976833.html"]Full report in The Independent[/link]