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Crony Covid contracts hit £3.5bn of taxpayers' money, says Labour

Monday, 4 October 2021 13:26

Labour reveals £3.5bn worth of COVID contracts were awarded to Tory-linked firms as Chancellor declares 'It's not the state's money, it's your money' Speaking at Tory Party Conference today the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, declared: ‘It's not the state's money, it's your money.’ However, new analysis of Tussell government procurement data by the Labour Party has exposed the Conservatives’ wasteful approach to taxpayers’ money, with contracts worth...Request free trial

Labour reveals £3.5bn worth of COVID contracts were awarded to Tory-linked firms as Chancellor declares 'It's not the state's money, it's your money'

Speaking at Tory Party Conference today the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, declared: ‘It's not the state's money, it's your money.’ However, new analysis of Tussell government procurement data by the Labour Party has exposed the Conservatives’ wasteful approach to taxpayers’ money, with contracts worth nearly £3.5bn awarded to companies that have links to the Conservative Party.

This figure is more than triple the original tally of £1 billion Labour revealed in October 2020, and comes despite stark warnings from the National Audit Office in November.

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said:

“The Conservatives have shown complete disregard for working people by wasting taxpayers’ money on dodgy contracts. Whether it was useless PPE or the billions that went down the drain on Test and Trace, they’ve shown that they are out for themselves and can’t be trusted to stand up for working people.

“Even as the Government is hitting working families with an unfair tax hike and household bills are soaring, the Conservatives continue to give billions of pounds out to their friends and donors.

“The Government should have long since ended the emergency rules that gave ‘VIP access’ to public contracts and they now need to say how they will recover the public money that has been handed out to their cronies for unusable PPE or undelivered services.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

In February 2021, Rachel Reeves called on the Government to clean up crony contracts, after it emerged that almost £2 billion of taxpayers’ money had been spent on “crony contracts”.

https://labour.org.uk/press/rachel-reeves-calls-on-government-to-clean-up-crony-contracts/

Latest analysis shows that this figure has now increased to almost £3.5 billion.

All research reproduced below is Labour analysis of data retrieved from Tussell.

Contracting Authority	Supplier	Award Value per Supplier (GBP)
Department of Health and Social Care	Arcadis Consulting (UK) Limited	£ 207,832.00
Ministry of Justice	Arcadis LLP	£ 1,500,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Arcadis LLP	£ 314,626.00
Unknown	Clipper Logistics	£ 1,300,000.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 86,960,890.06
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 60,000,000.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 31,911,101.68
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 27,346,193.10
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 14,166,785.31
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 10,318,578.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 6,359,737.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 2,803,605.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 2,784,161.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 2,063,730.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 351,120.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 351,120.00
Department for Education	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 351,120.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 153,110.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Computacenter (UK) Limited	£ 83,792.40
Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust	Dragontown Limited	£ 675,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Faculty Science Limited	£ 2,331,398.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Faculty Science Limited	£ 930,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Faculty Science Limited	£ 499,963.31
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government	Faculty Science Limited	£ 400,000.00
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy	Faculty Science Limited	£ 264,000.00
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy	Faculty Science Limited	£ 120,000.00
Cabinet Office	Fleetwood Strategy Limited	£ 123,500.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Globus (Shetland) Limited	£ 93,709,500.00
NHS Supply Chain	Globus (Shetland) Limited	£ 14,221,596.22
NHS Supply Chain	Globus (Shetland) Limited	£ 423,464.17
Cabinet Office	Hanbury Strategy And Communications Limited	£ 580,000.00
HM Treasury	Hanbury Strategy And Communications Limited	£ 460,718.00
HM Treasury	Hanbury Strategy And Communications Limited	£ 171,140.00
HM Treasury	Hanbury Strategy And Communications Limited	£ 68,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Medacs Healthcare PLC	£ 350,402,831.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Meller Designs Limited	£ 65,832,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Meller Designs Limited	£ 22,200,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Meller Designs Limited	£ 8,845,200.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Meller Designs Limited	£ 5,980,918.99
Department of Health and Social Care	Meller Designs Limited	£ 2,610,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Meller Designs Limited	£ 1,080,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Ocean Footprint Ltd	£ 5,190,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	P14 Medical Limited	£ 156,291,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	P14 Medical Limited	£ 116,013,156.00
Department of Health and Social Care	P14 Medical Limited	£ 4,192,812.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 11,916,172.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 6,195,950.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 6,023,472.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 2,153,288.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 2,147,357.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 2,018,394.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 1,642,480.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 1,435,500.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 750,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 672,022.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 433,230.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 426,500.00
NHS England	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 285,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 247,500.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 165,600.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 162,400.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 105,204.00
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 61,200.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 43,350.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Group Holdings Limited	£ 23,400.00
Cabinet Office	PA Consulting Services Limited	£ 12,000,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Services Limited	£ 4,095,060.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Services Limited	£ 3,822,200.00
Crown Commercial Service	PA Consulting Services Limited	£ 1,500,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Services Limited	£ 567,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PA Consulting Services Limited	£ 500,000.00
NHS England	PA Consulting Services Limited	£ 250,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited	£ 102,600,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited	£ 28,800,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PPE Medpro Limited	£ 122,000,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	PPE Medpro Limited	£ 80,850,000.00
Cabinet Office	Public First Limited	£ 840,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Public First Limited	£ 116,000.00
Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation	Public First Limited	£ 49,250.00
Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation	Public First Limited	£ 46,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 346,500,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 133,000,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 60,000,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 916,650.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 780,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 158,235.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 72,385.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 33,565.00
Public Health England	Randox Laboratories Limited	£ 16,660.00
Department for Work & Pensions	Serco Group PLC	£ 45,800,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Serco Limited	£ 424,188,176.00
Department for Work & Pensions	Serco Limited	£ 322,448,764.25
Crown Commercial Service	Serco Limited	£ 322,083,455.97
Department of Health and Social Care	Serco Limited	£ 57,000,000.00
Department for Work & Pensions	Serco Limited	£ 10,050,842.00
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy	Serco Limited	£ 1,033,000.00
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy	Serco Limited	£ 1,033,000.00
Department for Education	Specialist Computer Centres PLC	£ 2,137,044.00
Cabinet Office	Topham Guerin Limited	£ 3,000,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Worldlink Resources Ltd	£ 178,000,000.00
Department of Health and Social Care	Worldlink Resources Ltd	£ 80,100,000.00

Arcadis

Arcadis LLP was directly awarded a £1.5m consultancy contract with the Ministry of Justice on 20 April.[1]
Arcadis has been awarded two contracts worth over £500k, by the DHSC, to carry out analysis on waste water for traces of COVID.[2]
Gavin Barwell become a non-executive advisor at Arcadis at the beginning of June 2020.[3]

Clipper Logistics Ltd

This retail logistics firm took charge of PPE deliveries at the end of March. [4]
It has been reported that Clipper Logistics has been given a £1.3m contract by the government to distribute PPE.[5]
Clipper’ Chairman, Steven Parkin, has donated £725,000 to the Conservatives since 2016.[6]

Computacenter (UK) Limited

The DfE and DHSC have awarded Computacenter 15 COVID related contracts to Computacenter.
In November 2020, DfE awarded Computacenter a £87m contract to supply laptops for children who were home-learning. [7]
Computacenter is now one of the government’s Strategic Suppliers, supplying a range of IT services to departments. [8]
In November 2020, NHS England awarded Computacenter a contract worth £4.24m to supply “hardware devices to support the operation of COVID-19 vaccine centres.”[9]
In December, the DHSC ordered laptops for the Test and Trace workforce from Computacenter, in a contract worth £153,000.[10]
Computacenter was co-founded by Sir Philip Hume. In 2013, he donated £10,000 to Nick Herbert, Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs and in 2019, his wife Janet Hulme, gave £100,000 to the Conservative Party. [11]

Dragontown Ltd.

Dragontown Ltd. was awarded a contract worth £675,000 to supply PPE to Guys’ and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.[12]
Lady Xuelin Bates (nee Black) is a Director of this company. She is the wife of Tory peer and former minister Lord Bates.[13] She has donated over £207,000 to the Conservative Party since 2010.[14]

Faculty Science Ltd

Faculty Science Ltd received £400k to provide a data scientist to MHCLG[15], as well as a further £264k from BEIS to “conduct analyses and develop decision support tools for policy-makers regarding the likely impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on business and industry”.[16]
They also received a £2.33m contract for the provision of support to the NHSX AI Lab.[17]
Furthermore, in February 2020, Faculty Science Ltd was awarded a £930,000 contract for the supply of strategic support to NHSX AI Lab.[18]
Faculty CEO Marc Warner’s brother Ben was reportedly recruited to No. 10 last year by Cummings after running the data modelling for the Conservative party’s general election campaign.[19]
Until September 2020, Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew also had a £90,000 shareholding in the company.[20]

Globus (Shetland) Ltd.

Globus (Shetland) Limited won a £93m contract for the supply of respirators.[21]
In June this year Globus was awarded 2 contracts by the NHS Supply Chain, worth nearly £15m combined, for the supply of PPE.
Since 2016, this company has donated £376,000 to the Conservatives.[22]

Hanbury Strategy

The Cabinet Office paid Hanbury £580,000 to research “public attitudes and behaviours” regarding COVID-19.[23] The Treasury paid £68,000 for focus groups in June[24], £171,000 for polling in July [25] and a further £461K in December.[26]
The firm was founded in 2016 by Paul Stephenson, Director of Communications for the Vote Leave campaign, and Ameet Gill, David Cameron’s strategy director.
The Conservative Party spent over £700,000 with Hanbury during the 2019 General Election.[27]

Medacs Healthcare

In December 2020, Medacs Healthcare was awarded a £350m contract by the DHSC for the provision of temporary support staff.
Medacs Healthcare plc is owned by the Impellam Group, a company chaired by Lord Ashcroft, Conservative party donor and former Party treasurer. [28]

Meller Designs

The Government has awarded six contracts for PPE to Meller Designs worth over £100m, including one worth 65.8m[29] and another valued at £22m.[30]
The company is co-owned by David Meller, who has donated nearly £65,000 to the Conservative Party in the past decade. [31]

Ocean Footprint

The DHSC awarded Ocean Footprint £5.2m for the urgent supply of face masks at the beginning of April.[32]
One of the four directors of Ocean Footprint listed on Companies House is Julian Henry Malins[33] – the brother of former Tory MP, Humfrey Malins.[34]

P14 Medical

P14 have been awarded three contracts to supply PPE, one worth £156m[35], another worth £116m,[36] and the third valued at £4m.[37]
Steve Dechan, the director of P14 Medical, is a Conservative councillor on Stroud Town Council and campaigned for the local MP Siobhan Baillie at the 2019 election.[38]
In November, The Times reported that Dechan had bought a third home as a result of the money he had made from the contracts.[39]
After he had been awarded these contracts, Dechan donated £7,500 to the Conservative Party in October 2020.

PA Consulting

PA Consulting have been awarded 27 COVID related contracts in total worth nearly £60m.
The firm received £12m for consulting on the Ventilator Challenge,[40] plus an additional £1.5m as part of the supporting in the provision of the scheme.[41]
It also received a contract worth £250,000 for consultancy support for the implementation of staff passports to enable staff to more quickly transfer between services especially the Nightingales.[42]
Former Chair of the LGA and Conservative Councillor Sir Merrick Cockell has been a Senior Advisor at PA Consulting since 2014.[43]

Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited

Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited have been awarded two contracts by the DHSC worth over £130m. Both contracts were for PPE, one was worth £103m[44] and the other £28.8m[45].
The Daily Mail reported that the Home Secretary, Priti Patel lobbied Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove in April last year for Pharmaceuticals Direct Ltd (PDL) after an approach from her former adviser Samir Jassal.[46]
Since 2016, Samir Jassal has donated £6000 to the Conservative Party. His most recent donation of £2000 was in June 2021.[47]

PPE MedPro Limited

In June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded an £80.9m PPE contract [48] and later the same month, it was awarded a second contract worth £122m.[49]
According to Companies House, the company had only existed for month, having been incorporated on 12 May.[50]
It has been reported that PPE Medpro was founded by Anthony Page on the day he quit as the secretary of the company that deals with Tory Baroness Mone’s commercial brand. Mr Page is also a director of finance firm Knox Group, founded by Baroness Mone’s fiancé.[51]

Public First Limited

In 2020, Public First was been awarded 4 Covid related contracts worth over £1m.[52]
Public First is owned by James Frayne, with whom Dominic Cummings established the New Frontiers Foundation think tank in 2003.[53] In 2011, Michael Gove appointed Frayne as Director of Communications at DfE.[54]
Public First's directors are Frayne and his wife Rachel Wolf, who wrote the 2019 Conservative manifesto. In 2010, Rachel Wolf’s New Schools Network was awarded £500,000 by the DfE to set up free schools. No other organisation was asked to bid for the work, which was not publicly advertised.[55]

Randox

Randox has received contracts worth over £500m for testing services.
In March 2020, Randox received a £133m contract for the provision of testing[56] and in October it r was awarded a contract worth £347m.[57]
The company pays Owen Paterson to act as an adviser.[58]

Serco

Serco has been awarded Covid contracts worth over £1bn, including a £425m contract relating to international travel quarantining.[59]
They were also awarded £108m for running the national contact tracing service, with the option to extend for a longer period up to a value of £410m in total.[60]
In addition, Serco received £45.8m out of a potential £90m from DWP for emergency call centre support to vulnerable customers under self-isolation.[61]
And it has been awarded £57m for “management services support” at testing sites.[62]
It also received a £3m contract from the healthcare support services for the NHS in Scotland.[63]
Health minister Edward Argar previously worked as a senior executive at Serco.[64] The CEO, Rupert Soames, is brother to former Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames.[65]
Camilla Soames – Rupert Soames’ wife – donated £4,995 to the Tories in November 2019.[66]

Specialist Computer Centres PLC

Specialist Computer Centres were awarded a £2.1m contract for the supply of 10,000 devices for children out of school because of the pandemic.[67]
Specialist Computers is a divison of the Rigby Group plc, a company which has donated £175,000 to the Conservative Party.

Topham Guerin

This company was awarded a £3m contract to work on Covid-19 messaging without a competitive tender in March. However, the contract was not published until July.[68]
Topham Guerin worked on the Conservative Party’s digital and social media campaign during the last general election.[69]

Worldlink Resources Limited

Worldlink Resources received were awarded two contracts by the DHSC worth over £250m.[70]
The Times reported that the firm is linked to Brooks Newmark, the former Tory MP, who personally lobbied Matt Hancock.[71]
Brooks Newmark has donated £5,000 to the Conservative Party.

[1] MoJ, 20/04/2020, Procurement Notice ID: a1683e3b-6e74-4e0e-9e2b-92baa4c5822d_award

https://client.tussell.com/award_notices/438778-a1d5e6287c4313c21ffcccc937bca11d-business-consultancy-services

[2] Tussell, 29 September 2020, https://client.tussell.com/award_notices/476664-0f2fbde2083d63fe540f07b24a6ea66f-provision-of-wastewater-sentinal-monitoring-trial

Tussell, 6 November 2020, https://client.tussell.com/award_notices/491459-33905d9636685c5d3a7d517f08afc8f8-provision-of-wastewater-sentinal-monitoring-trial

[3] Dredgewire, 2 June 2020, https://dredgewire.com/article/13489/gavin-barwell-adds-arcadis-role-to-consulting-commitments

[4] HSJ, 31 March 2020, https://www.hsj.co.uk/coronavirus/exclusive-retail-logistics-firm-put-in-charge-of-crisis-hit-ppe-deliveries/7027277.article

[5] Sunday Times, 12 August 2020, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tory-backers-net-180m-ppe-deals-xwd5kmnqr

[6] Electoral Commission loans and donations

[7] Tussell, 2 November 2020, https://client.tussell.com/award_notices/496317-2261588c2c4fb9c1d3fb037f6dec541e-ghwt-device-reserve-4

[8] Tussell, 16 November 2020, https://blog.tussell.com/computacenter-the-governments-newest-strategic-supplier

[9] Tussell, 13 November 2020, https://client.tussell.com/award_notices/523002-ea510b214423a08c3a3cbf0820f31bf0-covid-19-vaccination-programme-hardware-devices

[10] Tussell, 10 December 2020, https://client.tussell.com/award_notices/503386-36a258d9cd8b83154c4e784d86606b05-dhsc-workforce-test-and-trace-programme-laptops