Tory Peers Secured $50M PPE Contracts via VIP Lane

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A former British Conservative Party leader and member of the House of Lords, Andrew Feldman, got involved in the UK response to the coronavirus pandemic, working on the effort to fill dangerously low stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE). Documents accessed through the Freedom of Information Act have now shed light on how a company connected to another Tory peer, Lord Chadlington, came to be awarded contracts worth £50m for PPE.

Referral to VIP Lane

Lord Feldman was introduced to the firm, SG Recruitment, by Lord Chadlington, who had a financial interest in the company as a director and shareholder of its parent company, Sumner Group Holdings, which is located in Jersey. After a phone call from the company's ultimate and CEO, David Sumner, Feldman sent an email to civil servants at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and their 'COVID PPE Priority Appraisals mailbox'. Feldman mentioned in his email that the offer had come from Sumner, who had been introduced to him by Lord Chadlington.

The offer was processed as a VIP high-priority case, as companies referred to the VIP lane - which was operated for recommendations by politicians, peers, and other politically connected people - had a tenfold greater chance of being awarded a contract, according to a report by the National Audit Office.

SG Recruitment

SG Recruitment was a small UK-registered company with five staff prior to the pandemic, who had mostly been recruiting nurses from countries overseas - including from the Philippines and India - as well as recruiting for nursing and domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Malaysia. In the financial year before the PPE contracts were granted, the company had turnovers of less than £500,000 and incurred a loss of £700,000.

On April 26th 2020, SG Recruitment was given a £23.9m contract to provide coveralls and, two months later, another contract worth £26.1m to supply hand sanitiser. Both contracts were granted without inviting other bids, due to the suspension of regular procurement rules necessitated by the pandemic. The company's name has since been changed to Sumner Group Health Ltd, and the financial accounts covering the contract award period indicate a profit of £1.1m, though it is unclear how much of this was due to the PPE contracts.

Comments

The former Conservative party chair, Feldman, has said his role with the DHSC was to help find urgently needed healthcare supplies, and he has stated that his only action after the initial introduction by Chadlington was to forward the email to civil servants at the DHSC. David Sumner, the ultimate owner and CEO of SG Recruitment, said the goods supplied were 'fit for purpose'.

When interviewed on the matter, Lord Chadlington has said he had not referred SG Recruitment to the government to be included in the VIP lane, nor had he lobbied for the company. He claims his involvement was limited to providing Feldman's DHSC email to David Sumner. Chadlington was subsequently cleared of any accusations of improperly lobbying for the PPE contracts by the House of Lords commissioner for standards, who said there was no evidence to suggest that Chadlington's involvement had influenced the decision to award the contracts.

The DHSC has stated that ministerial decisions were not involved in awarding contracts, and that offers of support through the high-priority list were subject to the same rigorous checks and assurance processes as any other procurement route. Sumner declined to comment on any disputes regarding the PPE delivery, citing commercial confidentiality.