Recommendation 3

BEIS has worked quickly to secure access to vaccines but could have been more transparent about how decisions have been made. Transparency is essential to maintain public confidence and ensure taxpayers’ money is being well spent. BEIS has managed significant uncertainty and worked at pace to purchase vaccines, but it could have been more transparent about how key decisions were made. The Chair of the Taskforce was appointed directly by the Prime Minister. While we recognise that a full competition was not an option at the height of the pandemic our witnesses could not explain why she was chosen or the reasoning behind the appointment which appears to be a personal decision by the Prime Minister. Transparency and openness about such key appointments is important and helps hold decision makers to account.) Almost a fifth of the 200 individuals on the Taskforce have recorded at least one conflict of interest although most are minor. To ensure the UK could access vaccines once they were approved, BEIS has made £914 million worth of upfront payments to enable pharmaceutical companies to start manufacturing vaccines at scale, but this could be lost if the vaccines are not approved. It has also agreed to provide each pharmaceutical company with broad ranging indemnity cover against adverse effects arising from their vaccine. In evidence witnesses were clear that had the indemnities not been provided this would have put the UK behind other countries in securing vaccines. Recommendation: BEIS should, by the end of March 2021, review its decisions about how to invest taxpayers’ money and its appointments processes to identify what it would repeat and what it will change in future. As part of this, BEIS should examine its experience of using the Taskforce model to inform its own and government’s future skills requirements and to ensure accountability arrangements are robust. BEIS should, by the end of April 2021, lay out its learning so the rest of government can improve the