TODAY: we’re in Court battling Government over millions of pounds of unusable PPE and the fast track ‘VIP lane’ for political connections.
They’d rather we weren’t paying attention. Help spread the word. actions.goodlawproject.org/subscribe
They’d rather we weren’t paying attention. Help spread the word. actions.goodlawproject.org/subscribe
And we're off! Our 5 day High Court hearing starts here.
Read our skeleton argument and follow our live updates from day 1 in court here ⬇️ glplive.org/1805-c-skele
Read our skeleton argument and follow our live updates from day 1 in court here ⬇️ glplive.org/1805-c-skele
Our barrister Jason Coppel QC tells the Court: "In a transparency case the parties should not be prohibited from mentioning the amount of public money wasted on a contract for no good reason of sensitivity."
"Our case is that Mills (Ayanda) got preferential treatment and had an extraordinary degree of interaction with Blackburn and Cairnduff because he was a VIP and was threatening to escalate to ministers at every turn" - Jason Coppel QC
"This is not a theoretical breach of equal treatment that we are complaining about: on the facts there were real advantages to being in the High Priority Lane." Our barrister Jason Coppel QC currently making the case for cross-examination of govt
Both Pestfix and Multibrands emailed the Department for Health offering to supply PPE in March 2020.
Multibrands received no response.
By contrast, Pestfix - who had a personal connection - were put through the VIP Lane.
Multibrands received no response.
By contrast, Pestfix - who had a personal connection - were put through the VIP Lane.
Unbelievable scenes - Government arguing we are trying to introduce evidence late on the VIP Lane - when they spent months covering up its existence!
"The contracts secured by PestFix and Ayanda were directly attributable to their VIP status; many other suppliers who had made credible offers of PPE but who were not fortunate enough to have connections in Government did not have their officers progressed.” - Jason Coppel QC
The limited knowledge of the VIP lane excluded many expert organisations:
“National medical associations with expert knowledge, including the BMA and the Royal College of Nursing were not told about the VIP lane and were therefore prevented from referring known PPE suppliers.”
“National medical associations with expert knowledge, including the BMA and the Royal College of Nursing were not told about the VIP lane and were therefore prevented from referring known PPE suppliers.”
Mr Coppel added: “The reality is clear: being a VIP supplier meant (a) getting a ‘foot in the door’...then (b) being guided through the award process up to contract signature.
“VIP suppliers’ offers were progressed through that process in a way that non-VIP suppliers’ were not.”
“VIP suppliers’ offers were progressed through that process in a way that non-VIP suppliers’ were not.”
The awards we are concerned with are a small sample of the overall total but worth some £700m. The processes that Government adopted give rise to very serious concerns as to the management of large amounts of public money and, we say, obvious illegality for three reasons:
1. The system for awarding contracts was non-transparent, unequal and unfair.
2. Govt established a VIP lane specifically to give priority to contacts of ministers + senior officials.
3. The Defendant spent vast sums of money without first applying basic technical checks
2. Govt established a VIP lane specifically to give priority to contacts of ministers + senior officials.
3. The Defendant spent vast sums of money without first applying basic technical checks
The outcome of this was a truly tragic waste of public money and enormous quantities of PPE at inflated prices which was useless to the NHS. Of the hundreds of millions of pounds spent on Pestfix and Ayanda, well over half was wasted - JCQC
"Technical assurance is a vital part of the due diligence in any public sector procurement...This is not simply a bureaucratic exercise. It is important beyond words that the soldier on the front line has equipment which meets the relevant performance standards..."
...This was equally true of the PPE being procured for the NHS - it was needed to protect healthcare workers and patients from infection."
Extract from Mr Moore's witness statement - an MOD civil servant seconded to DHSC from April - July 2020
Extract from Mr Moore's witness statement - an MOD civil servant seconded to DHSC from April - July 2020
This summarises in a sentence the key advantage with VIP lane:
"Support provided from high profile people require a rapid response and managing through the process."
"Support provided from high profile people require a rapid response and managing through the process."
Key advantages of being in the VIP lane:
"The personal handling, the rapid response, the managing through the process and not waiting in line with everybody else...You don’t languish on the portal, don’t go down the bulk route - you get a phone call within the hour."
"The personal handling, the rapid response, the managing through the process and not waiting in line with everybody else...You don’t languish on the portal, don’t go down the bulk route - you get a phone call within the hour."
Finally + importantly, VIPs got intel which non-VIPs didn’t.
This is clear from the events in Ayanda where Mr Mills, while he is negotiating for FFP2 masks, is asked whether he could also supply IIR masks. He hadn't offered to-he was invited to because he was a VIP in the system
This is clear from the events in Ayanda where Mr Mills, while he is negotiating for FFP2 masks, is asked whether he could also supply IIR masks. He hadn't offered to-he was invited to because he was a VIP in the system
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