Module 5: Our Reaction
The Module 5 report was published today, covering the Government’s handling of procurement during the pandemic.
Our reaction statement:
Today’s report lays bare a catastrophic failure of preparedness that cost lives, wasted billions and allowed a privileged few to profit from a national emergency. Those consequences were avoidable.
The human cost was felt in homes across the country, with countless patients, care users, and key workers contracting the virus due to inadequate PPE.
Care workers across the country were asked to do their jobs without being given the protection they needed to save themselves. They did so without a moment’s hesitation. While ordinary people were doing the right thing, a privileged few saw a national emergency as a money-making opportunity.
The evidence in this report is clear – the VIP lane was a textbook case of corruption and cronyism. No other country in the world created a VIP Lane. It was a deliberate and shameful choice. It was a hidden route that gave anybody who knew the right people access to huge amounts of public money, with little to no oversight or transparency. The result was that a few people got richer, while PPE didn’t get to those who needed it. The VIP Lane led to PPE procurement being less effective and more expensive. Ten billion pounds, two thirds of the total spending on PPE, was wasted.
Lives were lost as a result. Yet the full extent of the PPE scandal remains hidden from public view. An entire chapter of the report remains hidden from public view until the National Crime Agency has finished its investigation into PPE Medpro. We demand the full truth and urge the NCA not to allow its investigation to drag on indefinitely.
This report must now lead to action. The current government must implement every recommendation in full, recover every pound possible and prevent political connections from ever again securing privileged access to public contracts. The next pandemic is inevitable and yet we are once again unprepared.
We welcome the report’s recommendations. The report calls on the Government to bring our PPE stockpile up to an acceptable standard within 12 months and with another pandemic potentially around the corner that is a task they must carry out with urgency. It is equally vital that we strengthen domestic manufacturing and ensure PPE fits everyone who needs it, including women, ethnic minority workers and disabled people. Had the last government prepared and listened to the warnings before 2020, many of our loved ones would still be here today.
We now call on the current government not to make the same mistakes. We will continue our campaign until every recommendation is implemented and everyone who put profit before people is held to account. We will not stop until that work is done.
