By Ben Kerrigan-
A High Court judge has ordered a company linked to peer Baroness Mone (pictured)and her husband Doug Barrowman to pay a staggering £122m, after it breached a government contract for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid pandemic.
The High Court ruled Medpro failed to prove whether or not its surgical gowns, which were to be used by NHS workers, had undergone a validated sterilisation process.
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The Department of Health and Social Care had sued the company- PPE Medpro- in December 2022, arguing that it had not complied with PPE laws to ensure that 25m surgical gowns it provided under a June 2020 government contract were sterile.
The trial heard that the gowns, for which the DHSC paid £122m, were rejected after their first UK inspection in September 2020 and never used in the NHS. Also revealed in court was the fact that gowns, manufactured in China, were labelled with a CE mark, denoting compliance with European standards, yet no authorised quality assurance organisation had certified their safety and sterility.
The judgement said the government decided it was “not satisfied that the gowns were contractually compliant” after inspecting them, and claimed subsequent tests conducted found “a number of them were not sterile”.
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Civil servants at the time raised some concerns internally that the company, owned by a consortium led by Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman, had been incorporated as recently as May 2020, according to the ruling.
Insiders at the DHSC also identified “the potential for conflict of interest, given Baroness Mone’s husband’s involvement”, the judgment said. Nevertheless PPE Medpro supplied equipment including 25mn gowns.
Paul Stanley KC, representing the government, told the trial that of 140 gowns that were tested, 103 failed.
Paul Stanley KC, representing the DHSC, argued that this meant the gowns “were invalidly CE marked … and did not comply with the law”. Stanley referred in his opening submission to a statement by a health official who had said of the gowns that “the potential impact on safety was such that they could seriously harm or kill patients and so could not be released for use”.
PPE Medpro, ultimately owned by Mone’s husband, the Isle of Man-based businessman Doug Barrowman, defended the claim in court.
Mone, a lingerie entrepreneur who was ennobled by former Tory prime minister Lord David Cameron in 2015, lobbied ministers during the pandemic to give the lucrative contracts to the company.
The company’s barrister, Charles Samek KC, argued that the gowns were properly manufactured and sterilised in China, and that the DHSC agreed to the process before it awarded the contract.
“The secretary of state [for health] knew everything there was to know about my client’s offer, all cards were on the table face up, and they entered into this contract … with their eyes wide open,” Samek said in his opening.
The judge, Mrs Justice Cockerill, who heard the five-week trial at London’s Rolls Building in the summer, ruled in favour of the DHSC and ordered PPE Medpro to repay the full £122m plus additional costs and interest.
The VIP lane prioritized people with political connections, whilst thousand others bid for contracts
The DHSC awarded the £122m gowns contract to PPE Medpro, and another contract worth £80.85m to supply face masks, after Mone first approached the then Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove in May 2020. The contracts were processed via the VIP lane, and the trial heard that “Baroness Mone remained active throughout” the negotiations with civil servants for the gowns contract.
David Cameron appointed Mone into the House of Lords in 2015. She and Barrowman’s public denial of any involvement in PPE Medpro, only to later in 2023 admit their involvement and Barrowman said he was the company’s ultimate beneficial owner.
Fuming Rachel Reeves said she would “do everything” in her power “to get that money back” and that the money belongs “in our schools, in our hospitals and in our communities”.
Sceptical lawyers have suggested that it would be a long shot for the government could struggle to recoup the funds, which Mrs Justice Sara Cockerill said the company must repay within two weeks.
The high court case over the contract to supply sterile surgical gowns was taking place whilst an ongoing investigation by the National Crime Agency, begun in May 2021, into whether Mone and Barrowman committed any criminal offences during the process of procuring the contracts. Mone and Barrowman have denied any criminal wrongdoing.
It emerged during the trial that in December 2023 the DHSC had applied for the high court case to be paused until after any criminal proceedings were concluded, based on an argument from the NCA that this would be in the interests of justice. Samek said that PPE Medpro had opposed the application, and then the DHSC did not proceed with it.
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