Recommendation 21

The Department said that in relation to contract pricing, it did not consider the advantage to Randox that might be gained by the company winning early government contracts for testing (for example, from setting itself up as an established provider of testing services). The Department reiterated that the focus at the time was on increasing testing capacity. This meant that even though the supplier market matured during 2020 and more suppliers came on board, the Department still had to engage with all suppliers able to provide services rather than choosing the most competitively priced ones.42 Nevertheless, Randox benefited from capital investment it was able to make as a result of its government contracts, with the cost of this capital spending factored into the price that Randox charged for its services. The company spent £70 million on building additional laboratory space and other set-up costs to deliver its contracts.43