The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sued Medpro PPE over allegations it breached a contract worth £122m to supply 25m gowns.

At the start of the pandemic, PPE Medpro won more than £200m of contracts using the government’s ‘high priority lane’ to supply PPE for the NHS.

In December 2020, the DHSC served a notice to Medpro, seeking repayment for the contract to supply surgical gowns, after discovering the gowns supplied were not ‘contractually compliant’ and could not be used in the NHS as they ‘were not sterile.’

During the pandemic, the government set up high priority, VIP lanes to fast track companies into PPE contracts, if they had introductions from MPs, members of the House of Lords, or other senior political officials. This allowed certain suppliers to bypass normal due diligence and scrutiny for public sector procurement.