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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
High Court hears company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone must pay back £121m for ‘faulty' PPE
A company linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone should pay back more than £121 million for breaching a Government contract for 25 million surgical gowns during the coronavirus pandemic, the High Court has heard. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is suing PPE Medpro for allegedly breaching a deal for the gowns, with lawyers for the Government telling the court they were 'faulty' because they were not sterile. The company, a consortium led by Baroness Mone's husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, was awarded Government contracts by the former Conservative administration to supply PPE during the pandemic, after she recommended it to ministers. Both have denied wrongdoing. The Government is seeking to recover the costs of the contract, as well as the costs of transporting and storing the items, which amount to an additional £8,648,691. PPE Medpro said it 'categorically denies' breaching the contract, and its lawyers claimed the company has been 'singled out for unfair treatment'. Opening the trial on Wednesday, Paul Stanley KC, for the DHSC, said: 'This case is simply about whether 25 million surgical gowns provided by PPE Medpro were faulty. 'It is, in short, a technical case about detailed legal and industry standards that apply to sterile gowns.' Mr Stanley said in written submissions the 'initial contact with Medpro came through Baroness Mone', with discussions about the contract then going through one of the company's directors, Anthony Page. Baroness Mone remained 'active throughout' the negotiations, Mr Stanley said, with the peer stating Mr Barrowman had 'years of experience in manufacturing, procurement and management of supply chains'. But he told the court Baroness Mone's communications were 'not part of this case', which was 'simply about compliance'. He said: 'The department does not allege anything improper happened, and we are not concerned with any profits made by anybody.' In court documents from May this year, the DHSC said the gowns were delivered to the UK in 72 lots between August and October 2020, with £121,999,219.20 paid to PPE Medpro between July and August that year. The department rejected the gowns in December 2020 and told the company it would have to repay the money, but this has not happened and the gowns remain in storage, unable to be used. In written submissions for trial, Mr Stanley said 99.9999% of the gowns should have been sterile under the terms of the contract, equating to one in a million being unusable. The DHSC claims the contract also specified PPE Medpro had to sterilise the gowns using a 'validated process', attested by CE marking, which indicates a product has met certain medical standards. He said 'none of those things happened', with no validated sterilisation process being followed, and the gowns supplied with invalid CE marking. He continued that 140 gowns were later tested for sterility, with 103 failing. He said: 'Whatever was done to sterilise the gowns had not achieved its purpose, because more than one in a million of them was contaminated when delivered. 'On that basis, DHSC was entitled to reject the gowns, or is entitled to damages, which amount to the full price and storage costs.' In his written submissions, Charles Samek KC, for PPE Medpro, said the 'only plausible reason' for the gowns becoming contaminated was due to 'the transport and storage conditions or events to which the gowns were subject', after they had been delivered to the DHSC. He added the testing did not happen until several months after the gowns were rejected, and the samples selected were not 'representative of the whole population', meaning 'no proper conclusions may be drawn'. He said the DHSC's claim was 'contrived and opportunistic' and PPE Medpro had been 'made the 'fall guy' for a catalogue of failures and errors' by the department. He said: 'It has perhaps been singled out because of the high profiles of those said to be associated with PPE Medpro, and/or because it is perceived to be a supplier with financial resources behind it. 'In reality, an archetypal case of 'buyer's remorse', where DHSC simply seeks to get out of a bargain it wished it never entered into, left, as it is, with over £8 billion of purchased and unused PPE as a result of an untrammelled and uncontrolled buying spree with taxpayers' money.' He also said there was a 'delicious irony' that Baroness Mone was mentioned in the DHSC's written submissions, when she had 'zero relevance to the contractual issues in this case'. Neither Baroness Mone nor Mr Barrowman is due to give evidence in the trial, and Baroness Mone did not attend the first day of the hearing on Wednesday. A PPE Medpro spokesperson said the company 'categorically denies breaching its obligations' and will 'robustly defend' the claim. The trial before Mrs Justice Cockerill is due to last five weeks, with a judgment expected in writing at a later date.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Spending review: Treasury minister Emma Reynolds tells Sky News she is 'not ruling out' tax rises in the autumn
A Treasury minister has refused to rule out tax rises at the budget in the autumn, amid concerns that any global economic instability could mean the government will not have enough money to fund its spending plans. Speaking to Sky's Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue, Emma Reynolds defended how the economy was being handled, but would not say if more revenue might be needed from taxation. Asked repeatedly if she was ruling out tax rises, the minister said: "I'm not ruling it in and I'm not ruling it out. "We have got £9bn of fiscal headroom [money left in the budget], which is significantly more than the Tories had when they were in power, at the end of their time in power. "We've got a growing economy, and we, as the chancellor did say in the [Commons] chamber, the budget in the autumn last year was a once-in-a-generation budget where we had to do some very tough things, and we're not going to have another budget like that in the future." "Now we know - tax rises are coming." 3:43 Fiscal rules are non-negotiable Speaking to Sky's political editor Beth Rigby, the chancellor Rachel Reeves avoided the direct question about potential tax rises, saying: "Before any money goes out the door, we will have a budget in the autumn, and we will show in the round, when the Office for Budget Responsibility update their forecast, how everything is consistent with the fiscal rules that I set out as chancellor last autumn." She added that they "made the tax changes that were necessary last year to fund the spending that I've set out today". 4:28 Ms Reeves has imposed a set of "iron-clad" fiscal rules, which restrict government borrowing in order to ensure economic stability and reduce the UK's national debt, Labour says. These rules mean the amount of money she has available to spend on the day-to-day running of public services is limited to only what the government takes in tax revenue. 'A miniscule margin' But as Paul Johnson from the non-partisan Institute for Fiscal Studies told our presenter Jayne Secker, the chancellor has left herself very little room for manoeuvre. He said: "She set the fiscal rules and she's also meeting them by the most miniscule margin imaginable.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
The key mistakes you're making with your fan and it could be costing you £111 a year
KEEPING your home cool in the summer months can be a bit of a challenge. Many households turn to gadgets to help keep their pad feeling comfortable when temperatures are rising but beware as these can add a lot of money to energy bills. 1 The typical cost of running a fan is relatively low, no matter whether you opt for a bladeless model or more traditional style portable fan. For 24 hours of continuous use, you'd expect to pay between 3p and 7p through energy costs, according to the Energy Saving Trust. Even if you continuously used a fan over June, July and August it would add, at most, around £6 to an energy bill. However, with hotter weather more people are opting for air conditioning units. These appliances circulate air around the room in a similar way to a fan - but also remove heat from the room. Air con units are far more expensive to run than fans - typically 20 times as much, according to the EST. You're looking at paying up to £1.30 for 24 hours of continuous use. Over the course of a month that would be around £39 and over the summer months, £117. There are some easy ways to make sure you're getting the most out of a fan to keep your home cool so you can avoid other pricier gadgets, according to consumer group Which?. Here are the mistakes to avoid... Forgetting the ice Your fan can help cool a room faster if there is ice of cold water placed in front of it. To make this trick work best, you want a bowl filled to the top with ice and the fan blowing air directly on to it. This will make your fan feel a little more like an air conditioner without the added cost. Location, location, location If it's cooler outside, placing your fan next to a window will help draw in colder air helping to bring down the temperature in your home. This could work especially well in evenings when it's usually colder outside. Make sure it's facing the room and leave the window open. If you have another window in the room and another spare fan, you could further help push air out of the room by facing it out of the window. This will help create a crosswind in the room. Pre-running a fan Some may think that having a fan on in your bedroom before bedtime could be a good way to cool a room. But in reality you're wasting energy as a fan only creates a breeze which feels cooling rather than lowering the temperature. It's not a good idea to leave a fan running when you're out or not in a room either from a safety aspect. Not cleaning up Get the vacuum out to suck up dust and dirt in a room before turning on your fan. The gadget will blow air as well as dust and pollen particles around the room. This can aggravate allergies. If you're using your fan for the first time this year, it's worth giving it a clean. Follow the manufacturer instructions and clean blades gently if you're able to. It's a good idea to store your fan in a box or bag during cooler months to stop them gathering dust. Choosing the wrong fan As the name suggests, desk fans are usually best placed on a desk or table. They will then help you feel cool if you're working next to it. These gadgets are not too powerful and won't create a really strong breeze. So unless you're sat at the table, opt for a pedestal or tower fan which is designed to reach a larger distance in the room. How to save money on summer essentials SUNNIER days and warmer weather will leave many of us wanting to kit out gardens and outdoor areas. Sun Savers Editor Lana Clements explains how to get a great deal on summer essentials… It pays to know how to bag big savings on the likes of hot tubs paddling pools, egg chairs and outside bars. Many retailers have flash sales across entire ranges – often this ties into payday at the end of the month or Bank Holiday weekends. Sign up to the mailing lists of your favourite brands and you'll be first to know of special offers. It can be worth following retailers on social media too. Keep a close eye on the specialbuys at Aldi and middle of Lidl drops which drop a couple of times a week and usually mean great value seasonal items such as beach gear and paddling pools. If you are not in a hurry to buy an item, try adding it to the shopping cart and leaving it for a couple of days. Sometimes big brands will try to tempt you into the sale by offering you a discount. Always check if you can get cashback before paying. It's especially worth using sites such as Topcashback, Quidco and app Jamdoughnut when buying bigger ticket items such as garden furniture as you'll get a nice kickback.
