Recommendation 3

The Department remains in dispute on 176 contracts for PPE with £2.7 billion of taxpayer money at risk and has made little progress in tackling potential fraudulent supplies of goods. The majority of these 176 disputes relate to the quality of the PPE provided by the supplier. Eighty-three of the 176 contracts are still in the first stage of the commercial resolution process with a further 59 having entered formal commercial discussions. At present, no cases have moved into the litigation stage of the commercial dispute process. The Department estimates that of the 176 contracts in dispute, 35% will not be resolved until 2023. Although the 6 Management of PPE contracts Department estimates that total fraud from PPE contracts could be between 0.5%- 5.0% of expenditure it was unable to give us any details on how it is progressing any fraud inquiries for these contracts under dispute. Recommendation: The Department should explain in its Treasury Minute response to the Committee its progress in resolving these cases and provide as full an update as is possible on the status of those negotiations. The Department should also update us on how it is working with relevant authorities in assessing and acting on any fraudulent cases.