Explosive new report condemns the Government’s 'muddled' and 'overstated' Test & Trace system - and finds it has failed to cut infection levels despite its ‘eye-watering’ £37bn funding
🚨Incredibly, only 14% of lateral flow test results have been registered.
Huge waste that has likely generated huge wealth for some.
We revealed the existence of a fast-track 'VIP' lane for testing firms preferred by Ministers ⬇️ (3/6) goodlawproject.org/update/breakin…
When we first revealed evidence of a VIP lane for testing contracts, Government said our claims were “completely false”
Now, after a lengthy battle, it has admitted senior ministers Michael Gove & Lord Agnew frequently used a ‘fast-track’ lane 🤨 (4/6) goodlawproject.org/news/michael-g…
🚨Govt ‘does not yet know’ if newly established labs will secure ‘promised benefits’
🚨On average, only 45% of lab capacity is in use
🚨Most of the paid-for Test & Trace capacity has not been used (5/6)
@CommonsPAC We will stop at nothing to unearth the names of the ‘VIPs’ who benefitted from a red carpet route to the Government’s £37bn Test & Trace programme.
There are plenty more shocking revelations to come.
@openDemocracy@ICOnews [2] After a 3-month wait, Government refused to release a bombshell report explaining how the PPE ‘VIP’ lane was controlled, and the associated conflict of interest issues/fraud risks.
Happy Friday! Here’s a few of the things we’ve been working on this week... (1/6)🧵⏬
We started the week with a win!
The ICO has now ordered Government to reveal the names of the 47 companies in the PPE VIP lane (yep, the VIP lane they previously said didn’t exist 👀) (2/6) glplive.org/tzj
We worked with @openDemocracy to reveal that Boris Johnson’s former adviser works for a company that won millions of pounds in Government funding - at the same time it donated £20,000 to the Conservative Party (3/6) glplive.org/z44
One email from March 2020 shows officials & Dr Jenny Harries, now Head of Test + Trace, discussing the fact that care homes did not want to take people from hospital without a negative test. Instead of listening it appears Government pushed ahead ⬇️
A report from March 2020 confirmed that residents being admitted to care homes ‘may have Covid-19, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic’.
And an email dated 24th March 2020 revealed that ‘freeing up NHS beds is a government policy’.
The first major inquiry into how Government handled the Covid crisis has been published today. The findings are damning, revealing a catalogue of failures which led to thousands of needless deaths. THREAD⬇️ committees.parliament.uk/work/657/coron…
The report reflects much of what we’ve been saying for months. From flawed Test and Trace, to poor protection in elderly care homes, much more could have been done. It’s heartbreaking reading.
It calls Test and Trace “slow, uncertain, and often chaotic”, saying it “ultimately failed in its stated objective to prevent future lockdowns despite vast quantities of taxpayers’ money being directed to it”.
We've had a successful week - here's a few of our highlights ⬇️ (1/6)
🔍We revealed eye-watering profits made by Uniserve, who secured PPE deals via the ‘VIP Lane’ - which Government had previously denied existing (2/6) glplive.org/fpf
✅The High Court granted our request to have our legal challenge to the so-called ‘Levelling Up Fund’ heard on an expedited basis (3/6) glplive.org/h05
💥The huge £4.8bn fund pretends to be the centrepiece of a levelling up agenda – but we think it’s just a way to funnel money into constituencies of political benefit to the Conservative Party... (1/6) thenational.scot/news/19534210.…
This week, the High Court granted permission for our legal challenge against this... This decision means the Government will have to defend itself in Court (2/6)
It’s the latest in a string of permission decisions that have gone in our favour.
Of the 14 cases we have issued since the start of 2020, the Court has granted permission in 11 at the first time of asking... (3/6)