Thread by @allthecitizens

BREAKING: @allthecitizens / @BylineTimes have found another Tory donor linked to more govt contracts.

Firm founded by Scott Fletcher, who’s parent company has donated over £240,000 to the Tories, wins £2.5m for supporting Test & Trace and providing cloud services in the pandemic

A joint investigation reveals that The ANS Group - which was set up by Scott Fletcher in 1996 - has won 4 contracts worth £2.5m since April 2020. ANS is owned by Project Daytona Bidco, PDB is owned by one Project Daytona Ltd, which is in turn ultimately controlled by Fletcher.

Fletcher, a 47yr old Manchester-born businessman has donated via another company 8 times to the Tories since 2014, totalling some £240,000. The latest gift from the MBE award winner was in December 2019.

ANS Group, “the UK’s fastest moving & most innovative digital & cloud experts”, were 1 of 5 tech / consulting companies first tasked with working on Covid-19 data store (along with Faculty, Palantir, McKinsey and Deloitte).

ANS Group have since won at least £2.5 million over four agreements running from April 2020, providing cloud support within the health service for the new Test & Trace app, one of which has previously been reported on by @allthecitizens:

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1346470662165073921?s=20

Their website states that they’re “supporting the government’s Track & Trace programme by working with local authorities to help them identify and contain potential Covid-19 outbreaks with a pre-built Microsoft Dynamics solution” ans.co.uk

ANS was founded by Fletcher when he was 22. He resigned control of the group in 2016 but is listed as having significant control of its parent company, Project Daytona Bidco, which took over control of ANS that same year.
investegate.co.uk/project-dayton…

Fletcher is reported to have an estimated net worth of £200m, and owns or sits on the board of a number of active companies, including several iterations of a “Lowry” organisation; Lowry Propco, Lowry SPV1, and notably Lowry Trading Ltd.

Lowry serves as the vehicle for political donations, having given over £240,000 to the Conservative Party since 2014. In 2019,they turned a pre-tax profit of £5.5m. Companies House documents suggest they paid 3% tax on this - just £165k, a lesser figure than their Tory donations.

Companies House also shows that Lowry Trading is the “ultimate and controlling parent” of the assortment of companies, with both Project Daytona entities under it. Scott Fletcher is named as the controlling party of the group.

Despite the role ANS are taking in Test and Trace, Fletcher also seems to be a bit of a lockdown sceptic. On his Twitter account he has expressed or re-tweeted what some might call anti-lockdown, anti-mask, and even anti-vaccine content:

There’s no suggestion Scott Fletcher or ANS have done anything wrong, that these contracts have been won illegally, or that ANS are unable to provide the service outlined. This does, however, add to a long line of contracts awarded by this government to benefactors and friends.

To read the full @BylineTimes article of this story please follow the link just below:

https://twitter.com/BylineTimes/status/1354837386555961353?s=20