Conclusion 13

The risk of conflicts of interest from the High Priority Lane was also high by design and we have seen limited information on how conflicts of interest should be handled within the Department should they arise (although this was not a direct part of the documents requested for release in the humble Address). There seems to have been a lack of clarity about the purpose of officials checking whether conflicts of interest existed. These are serious defects in government’s stewardship of public money and the Committee has previously reported on this issue.5 However, from the evidence in the materials made available to us we cannot comprehensively conclude whether emails from Baroness Mone and the route through the High Priority Lane led to the PPE Medpro offer being treated differently by government than other offers made in the same way during those abnormal times. 5 Public Accounts Committee, Management of PPE contracts, July 2022, Para 16 and Public Accounts Committee, Department of Health and Social Care 2020–21 Annual Report and Accounts, Para 5 6 PPE Medpro: awarding of contracts during the pandemic 2 Related investigations and legal proceedings