Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to response to the Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons on 17 November 2021, for specified minutes, notes, and correspondence relating to Government contracts awarded to Randox Laboratories Ltd, HC1072, for what reason there is no entry in the register of ministerial meetings of (a) the Microsoft Teams meeting between the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Innovation and Randox on 7 August 2020 to discuss a letter sent by the CEO of Randox to the Secretary of State on 6 August 2020, (b) the calls between the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Innovation, Randox and Owen Paterson of 14 May 2020 and (c) the telephone call between the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Innovation and the CEO of Randox over the weekend of 5-6 April 2020; and whether his Department holds minutes of those meetings.

The Government is committed to publishing details of ministerial meetings with external organisations and aims to ensure that all meetings which meet the relevant criteria are included in the register. Where there are omissions, this is due to administrative error.

The Department does not hold a record of the meetings of 14 May 2020 and of 5 to 6 April 2020. The Department has identified a note of meeting on 7 August 2020, which was located following the Humble Address and the National Audit Office’s investigation into the Department’s contracts with Randox Laboratories Ltd. A copy of the note is attached, which has been redacted to remove personal information.