Covid Contracts: Judicial Review Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Wendy Chamberlain
Main Page: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)Department Debates - View all Wendy Chamberlain's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Covid Contracts: Judicial Review
Wendy Chamberlain Excerpts(3 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Edward Argar
The equipment was procured, it was secured and it was delivered. It did what we would all have wished it to do: it went to the frontline to protect people and to ensure that hospitals and trusts did not run out of PPE at that crucial point in the first wave. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight what I believe the British public would have wished to see us doing, which was focusing on getting the PPE to those who needed it as fast as we could in that crisis.
Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)
The Committee for Standards in Public Life is currently undertaking an inquiry focused on the upholding of the Nolan principles of public life, which include integrity, accountability and openness. Given that it has been reported that civil servants delayed publications at the behest of No. 10 special advisers, and given that we have ended up in a situation where this matter has been taken to court, does the Minister believe that the Government have met those standards?
Edward Argar
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her question, but in answer I revert back to what the judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, said in his findings in this case: he found no evidence of a policy of deprioritisation of meeting transparency requirements on publication.