London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 16, 2025

Labour demands to know why Covid procurement rules still in place

Labour demands to know why Covid procurement rules still in place

Policy allows firms to win multimillion-pound contracts without usual scrutiny or competition
Labour has written to the government to query why emergency Covid procurement rules, under which companies were given contracts worth tens or hundreds of millions of pounds without the usual scrutiny or competition, have still not been reversed.

In March last year the Cabinet Office published what is known as a procurement policy note, which said that given the emergency, “in exceptional circumstances, authorities may need to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency and without competition”.

But in a letter to the Crown Commercial Service, the arm of the Cabinet Office which leads on policy connected to purchasing and associated areas, Labour queried why the instruction had yet to be rescinded.

Writing to Simon Tse, the chief executive of the Crown Commercial Service, Jack Dromey, the shadow paymaster general, said 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 issue has been highlighted in recent weeks by coverage of the lobbying and outside commercial work of some MPs, such as Owen Paterson.

The healthcare company Randox paid Paterson – who has now resigned as a Tory backbencher – £100,000 a year as a consultant. The group was awarded hundreds of millions of pounds in contracts for Covid testing without any competitive bidding.

This week, the government said it had lost a formal note about a meeting between former health minister James Bethell, Paterson and Randox. In August it emerged Bethell had replaced his mobile phone before it could be searched for information relevant to how £85m of deals for personal protective equipment (PPE) and tests were allocated at the height of the pandemic.

Other controversies about the way contracts were awarded include the use of a “VIP channel” for well-connected people to try to secure PPE contracts, and the awarding of a £30m contract to produce test tubes to a former publican and neighbour of the then health secretary, Matt Hancock, despite a lack of experience in the area.

In his letter, Dromey said the scale of the threat posed by Covid last year justified the emergency regulations. He added: “However, as the country has overcome the tragedy of the initial waves of the pandemic, it is less clear whether such regulations should continue to be the basis of procurement guidance to public bodies.

“Following recent revelations regarding the awarding of public contracts during the pandemic and the role of cabinet ministers in this process, I am concerned that such inadequate procurement processes should not be allowed to continue. While coronavirus remains an ongoing threat to the health and wellbeing of the country, the exceptional circumstances of last March are no longer apparent.

“I would therefore be grateful if you could confirm if official guidance continues to allow for emergency procurement procedures, and if so, what justification there is for this guidance and when will it be withdrawn?”

The Cabinet Office, which is in charge of such purchasing regulations, said the actual rules had been in place since 2015, for use in any emergency situation, and that the procurement policy note “simply pointed authorities to longstanding procedures”.

A spokesperson said: “We have also been clear from the outset that public authorities must achieve value for money, use good commercial judgment and follow all due diligence processes when awarding all contracts.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
×