Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what conflict of interest criteria have been applied to the awarding of contracts via the high priority lane for procurement since 1 March 2020.

Regulation 24 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 requires contracting authorities to take appropriate measures to effectively prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest arising in the conduct of procurement procedures. The Department has robust rules and processes in place to ensure that conflicts of interest do not occur, including declaration from suppliers, publication of ministerial interests and robust departmental guidance.

These all applied to the procurement of personal protective equipment last year by the Department, including the use of a high priority lane to consider the most credible

offers from suppliers which needed to be reviewed with more urgency.