A man has been arrested as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into PPE Medpro, a private company that was awarded valuable government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A 46-year-old man from Barnet, London, was arrested yesterday morning, 12 June, at his home address as part of an on-going NCA investigation into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro,” the NCA said in a statement on Thursday.
Authorities have since released the man, the agency added.
PPE Medpro has faced controversy over so-called “VIP lane” contracts that were granted to some companies by the government during the pandemic.
The Department of Health and Social Care awarded government contracts worth more than £200 million to PPE Medpro, shortly after it was set up in May 2020. The company was led by Doug Barrowman and was referred to the government by Mr. Barrowman’s wife, Baroness Michelle Mone.
Glasgow-born Baroness Mone was given a peerage in 2015 under the Conservatives and sat in the House of Lords until 2022. She took a leave of absence in December 2022, after an inquiry was launched relating to her alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro, leading to potential breaches of the House of Lords Code of Conduct.
The government subsequently launched legal proceedings against PPE Medpro over the second contract it had been awarded, worth £122 million for the supply of gowns, which were found not fit for use.
Procurement Issues
In a statement released in January, Mr. Barrowman said that the British media have treated him and his family as a “punching bag” for the past three years.He said that the prices for PPE supplies, offered by Medpro, were very competitive and saved the government at least £100 million compared to the competition at the time.
Mr. Barrowman also noted that the government only paid for the gowns—it later said were unfit for use—after it was satisfied with the product.
He also said that he and Baroness Mone were “hung out to dry to distract attention from government incompetence” in the way it handles PPE procurement at the time of a national emergency.
“Medpro supplied the Govt with 1.5% of PPE spend (£202 million) against a total of £13.1 billion and yet the media or Govt refuses to focus on the other 98.5% of PPE supplied; much of which was defective or never used and/or supplied in identical circumstances to the Medpro contracts,” said Mr. Barrowman.
The Committee of Public Accounts has found recurring issues with the government’s approach to procurement over recent years. Among them are poor financial controls and poor management of due diligence and conflicts of interest, as well as inadequate transparency.
The committee said that the “need to operate at speed was not a justification for rushing into contracts without adequate due diligence or regard for public money.”
Apart from Medpro, the so-called high priority lane saw numerous other firms and PPE suppliers referred by MPs, peers, ministers, and senior officials.
Meller Designs was awarded six PPE and hand sanitiser contracts, worth £164 million, after a referral by Michael Gove, who was a Cabinet Office minister at the time. A company called Brandology Ltd was another fast-tracked PPE supplier, referred by Conservative MP Julian Lewis and awarded nearly £100 million worth of contracts.
In 2022, the High Court ruled that the use of the high priority lane was unlawful.
In addition to a legal case opened by the government, PPE Medpro is being investigated by the NCA. The agency launched its investigation in May 2021 and is looking into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.
In April 2022, the NCA executed search warrants at the homes of Baroness Mone and Mr. Barrowman, as well as the company’s offices in London and the Isle of Man.
