A government ‘fast-track’ order for £12.6 million of PPE from a China-based firm ended up with every item being written off.
The deal for protective goggles signed off during the Covid pandemic resulted in all of the gear being marked ‘Do Not Supply’.
The kit was supplied by Liaoning Zhongqiao Overseas Exchange Co Ltd as the government scrambled to find enough PPE to protect the NHS frontline.
The firm was referred through a high-priority ‘VIP lane’ via the office of the Duchy of Lancaster, which was at the time overseen by Michael Gove.
Fresh details about the deal have emerged after NHS Supply Chain, the health services’s procurement company, was ordered by the Information Commissioner’s Office to release certain information.
Supply Chain had cited ‘commercial interests’ when refusing to provide specifics about the deal in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Metro.
The national body also declined to reveal the location where the items are stored — claiming that to do so would create ‘additional security risks from unannounced visits.’
Metro then complained to the Information Commissioner, who ruled that the information must be supplied and stated: ‘The Commissioner is not satisfied that the public authority has demonstrated a causal link between disclosure of this information and…any harm to the DHSC’s [Department of Health and Social Care] commercial interests.’
The ICO also found that the respondent had breached Section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act because it had failed to provide the requested information within 20 working days.
Responding to the ruling, Supply Chain Coordination Ltd, the organisation’s trading name, provided two brief lines of information.
The firm said that ‘all items’ purchased had been placed in the ‘Do Not Supply category’ and that ‘remnant stock not disposed of’ is being stored in Daventry, Northamptonshire.
PPE saga keeps unravelling
The Liaoning Zhongqiao goggles deal falls within a wider pattern of colossal PPE wastage that is still coming to public light, almost three years after the end of Covid restrictions.
In March 2022, the National Audit Office found that the DHSC was storing some 3.6 billion items not deemed suitable for frontline use. The items were purchased at a cost of £2.9 billion.
Issues included PPE being classified as ‘not fit for any use’ and therefore becoming ‘wastage’. In other cases frontline services preferred alternative items, such as face visors requiring some self-assembly or aprons that are flat-packed rather than being on a roll.
In January, the DHSC’s own figures showed that almost £10 billion was spent on defective or unusable PPE.
No information was given about why the goggles were insufficient for use or the context of the word ‘disposed’.
Jo Maugham, executive director of the Good Law Project, a non-profit campaign group, said: ‘Bad enough that we paid these millions of pounds to one of Michael Gove’s VIPs for goggles unfit for use in the NHS.
‘But even worse is the attempt to cover up that the goggles were unusable.
‘Everyone seems to have forgotten that this is public money and they are accountable to us, the public, for it.’
The contract for medical goggles was signed off on April 23, 2020 by the DHSC through the government’s ‘high priority’ lane for PPE deals.
A day before, the then health secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that the virus was at its ‘peak’ in the UK and the government was ‘constantly working’ to secure more protective equipment.
The DHSC agreed to pay half of the £12.6 million before the final shipment had been cleared from a secured warehouse, the contract shows.
Curiously, Liaoning Zhongqiao gave the ‘supplier’s’ address as a PO Box in the village of Chirn Park on Australia’s Gold Coast.
The neighbourhood has a parrot emblem for its logo and is characterised by neat bungalows and a lively artistic scene.
Elsewhere in the document, Liaoning Zhongqiao’s registered address is given at a street in the Shenyang region of southern China. The firm is said to be owned by an Australian company.
The deal falls within a staggering tally of loss from contracts signed off during Covid, which are still unravelling almost three years since the end of Covid restrictions.
Metro has previously revealed how almost two million gowns and 300,000 goggles were offered to NATO countries after failing to reach the NHS supply chain.
The items, purchased from several companies in China and Hong Kong, were put up for auction in an online portal but were withdrawn after no purchases were made.
Another deal, thought to be the most wasteful contract struck by the government during the pandemic, involved around £1.4 billion worth of PPE being destroyed or written off, according to the BBC.
Overall, almost £10 billion was wasted on defective or unusable PPE during the crisis, figures published by the DHSC in January show.
The Good Law Project has uncovered a VIP lane for PPE suppliers, part of what it says is ‘one of the most egregious examples of political sleaze and mismanagement of public money in recent memory.’
A DHSC spokesperson said: ‘The Chancellor has announced plans to appoint a Covid Corruption Commissioner and this government has committed to doing everything in its power to get taxpayers money back where possible.
‘This government has also announced a block on any further PPE contracts being abandoned or waived until they have been independently assessed by the commissioner, who will be appointed soon.’
Metro has attempted to contact Mr Gove for comment.
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