Recommendation 14

We challenged the Department and NHST&T on the value for money and their scrutiny of these consultancy contracts and associated spend. On day rates, the Department felt it had mitigations in place, including specifying within contracts that services are to be obtained from staff at an appropriate grade, rather than directors and partners by default. It also noted that some consultancies had dropped their normal public sector rates for COVID-19 work.48 The Department felt it had mitigated the risk of profiteering through its approvals and contract management processes, and the way it structured its contracts, e.g. by not committing to fixed levels of volume. It also told us it had “beefed up” NHST&T’s commercial function.49 The Department said that it was as confident as it could be, based on monitoring information, that there was no profiteering, and that it did not have, and had not had, any “red flags” on contractors or contracts linked to NHST&T.50 42 Qq 58–59 43 https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020–10–14/103454 44 Select Committee on Science and Technology, Oral evidence: UK science, research and technology capability and influence in global disease outbreaks, HC 136, Wednesday 3 February 2021, Qq 1928, 1931 45 Q 47–48 46 Qq 33–35; Department of Health & Social Care, point 3 47 Qq 32, 47; Department of Health & Social Care, point 3 48 Qq 33, 36 49 Q 49; C&AG’s Report para 1.35 50 Qq 50–52 14 COVID-19: Test, track and trace (part 1) 2 Learning lessons for the future Rollout of rapid testing