📣And we're off! The urgent hearing in our PPE cases with @EveryDoctorUK over the direct awards of contracts to Ayanda, Pestfix and Clandeboye has begun.
Follow here for live updates from the Court... crowdjustice.com/case/108millio…
Our barrister Jason Coppel QC taking the Court through our skeleton argument: when engaged in Judicial Review, the duty of candour requires that government must lay “all its cards face upwards on the table”. Its duty “applies to all information relevant to issues in the case”.
"It is remarkable that a government department would point blank refuse to explain how it has gone about conducting its disclosure exercise." - Jason Coppel QC
Government's own guidance states redaction is not the norm. Read our skele in full: glplive.org/2104-c-skele
Government disclosure is notable for what is not said and what is missing. "We've not had a single text message or Whatsapp message from the multiple witnesses who have given witness statements" - Jason Coppel QC
"All we are left with is a gap in how the defendent has got to a point where it hasn't disclosed a single electronic communication of that nature." - Jason Coppel QC
This is not an academic concern. The disclosure does not include contemporaneous evidence we would expect to see. No file notes, submissions to Ministers, text messages or Whatsapp messages - our barrister Jason Coppel QC
Page 26 shows the significance of some of these redactions....
Para 14 here is concerned with how Prospermill and Ayanda got into the VIP Lane - but the name of the person who referred Prospermill into the PPE process is redacted. glplive.org/hearing-2204
Government has been pretending that there was no such thing as a "VIP" lane. But the emails in our court hearing today show there was...
“This is likely to get escalated to ministerial level” - re Ayanda
The name of the person who did the technical assurance for Pestfix products is redacted. That is going to be a key issue in the proceedings: how did Government end up buying products that were not fit for purpose?
The Court is now being taken to civil servants' emails describing the impact of VIP prioritisation. This seems to show the impact of the 'VIP lane' was to jump the supplier to the front of the queue:
And civil servants were flagging that the VIPs were inhibiting the efficient buying of PPE...
When VIPs without "the correct certification" can "jump to the front of the queue it then has a knock on effect to the remaining offers of help."
This email deals with how Pestfix got into the VIP lane, but there are multiple blanked out names....
"Pestfix has other links with government, but we’re not allowed to know what they are. How Pestfix got into the VIP lane is a significant issue...but we’re not allowed to know, it seems" - Jason Coppel QC
We're updating our case page throughout the day - read the key documents here @EveryDoctorUK goodlawproject.org/case/procureme…
Remember Clandeboye - the confectionery wholesaler that landed PPE contracts worth £108m - without competition?
We can reveal for the first time that Clandeboye were awarded the contracts through the 'VIP' lane:
In arguing for wholesale redactions on grounds of privacy or national security, Government barrister says "open justice has nothing to do with it". Knowing who it was who sent this or that email will have no effect on open justice, and the issues will be ventilated just as well
Government has described Pestfix ending up on the VIP Lane as a "mistake" and the NAO couldn't explain further.
But these emails we can reveal today show Pestfix was referred to the VIP Lane:
Remember Ayanda, the company fast-tracked through the VIP Lane - who supplied £155m of unusable masks?
Here's a civil servant concerned that "the bar seems to have been lowered on this one":
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