Recommendation 3

The Department did not deal with potential conflicts of interest, despite clear concerns about Randox’s political connections. The Department did not show any evidence of taking any care over potential conflicts of interest when it awarded contracts to Randox. This was despite officials being aware of Owen Paterson’s contacts with Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, as a paid consultant for Randox while he was still a sitting MP, and the hospitality Mr Hancock received from Randox in 2019. For its first contract with Randox, the Department failed to identify any conflicts of interest, incorrectly 1 Letter from Matt Hancock, 20 May 2022 6 Government’s contracts with Randox Laboratories Ltd stating at the time that consideration of conflicts of interest was not applicable to that contract award. The Department was not able to answer clearly how it makes sure that those involved in procurement give due consideration to potential conflicts of interest in their decision making, even where interests are properly recorded or declared. The Procurement Bill, published in May 2022, contains new requirements on departments to record conflicts of interests relating to contracts. We are also concerned about the Department’s prioritisation of testing suppliers through VIP and priority routes, including those referred by ministers, MPs or Number 10. Suppliers that came through these routes were awarded £6 billion out of the £7.9 billion total of testing contracts awarded between May 2020 and March 2021. Recommendation: Alongside its Treasury Minute response, the Department should write to us to clarify the information it had on declared private interests and how it used this information to identify potential conflicts of interest in its procurement decisions. In addition to the expected new requirements to record conflicts of interest, government should strengthen its approach to ensure that conflicts of interest are not just documented,