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£3.2m annual bill for storing PPE bought by Government from firm linked to Baroness Mone, judge told

Telegraph reporters
Thu, 7 December 2023
In this article:
Michelle Mone, Baroness Mone
British businessperson

Michelle Mone was made a Tory peer in 2015 - PA/PA

Taxpayers are paying about £3.2 million a year to cover the cost of storing millions of “sterile gowns” which were bought by the Government during the Covid crisis from a firm which allegedly has links to Baroness Mone.

Lawyers representing Victoria Atkins, the Health and Social Care Secretary, indicated on Thursday, at a High Court hearing in London, that the total storage bill had topped £10 million.

They told Mr Justice Bright the total spent on storage by the end of 2022 was about £6.9 million.

Mr Justice Bright was given figures while overseeing a pre-trial hearing in a £130 million damages dispute centred on the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.

The Government is suing PPE Medpro - the firm which supplied the gowns. The company, which has been at the centre of a Westminster controversy following allegations linking Conservative peer Baroness Michelle Mone to PPE Medpro, is fighting the case.

Reports, denied by Lady Mone, have suggested she may have profited from the firm winning contracts worth more than £200 million. News of the dispute emerged a year ago.

Barrister Paul Stanley KC, who led the Health Secretary’s legal team at Thursday’s hearing, told Mr Justice Bright that in June 2020 a contract had been forged for PPE Medpro to sell the Health Department 25 million sterile gowns.

Samples ‘failed dismally’

He said the Government is claiming the gowns, which were “manufactured and sterilised” in China, were “not sterile when delivered”. He said the Health Department had tested a “sample of gowns” and told the judge: “They failed dismally.”

Mr Stanley said PPE Medpro was suggesting that the gowns tested were “contaminated on the journey from China”, or “while stored in the UK”, or that “the testing was not done properly”.

He indicated that a judge would probably hear evidence at trial lasting more than two weeks.

Mr Stanley said one issue related to how many gowns needed to be “retained for the purposes of the case”. He said a judge may have to “grapple” with that issue if an agreement could not be reached.

He said the health department “and therefore the public purse” was continuing to “incur costs of storing” the gowns.

“Storage costs for the Medpro gowns is approximately £3.2 million per year, totalling some £6.9 million as at December 2022,” he said.

“The Department of Health and Social Care is naturally keen to begin orderly disposal of the gowns, both to mitigate its loss and minimise ongoing cost to the taxpayer, but it recognises that it must do that in a manner that is consistent with its obligation to ensure the fair determination of its claim.”
‘High-risk’ dash for PPE

In July, a cross-party committee of MPs found the Government’s high-risk dash to purchase PPE during the pandemic resembled “panic buying”.

The public accounts committee said a “rushed” approach led to “many risky contacts” and resulted in £9 billion being written off.

A committee report said officials had to work at a “very fast pace in extraordinary circumstances” to procure essential equipment.

Officials had “insufficient time and resources to reflect properly on each offer”, with the sudden pressure causing them to “accept very high levels of risk”, the report said.

The committee was unable to “comprehensively conclude” that emails from Lady Mone led to PPE Medpro being treated differently by the Government.