PPE Procurement VIP Lane/Parallel Supply Chain

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

I have been following the work of Jo Maugham for some time. No doubt you will be aware of his team's legal action concerning PPE procurement corruption, recently reported in the US press, and belatedly the UK press.

Information published in recent works shows the existance of a 'VIP Lane' for companies applying for contracts to supply the Government with PPE. Many of those companies were questionable suppliers.

Please could you disclose to me;

1) The email address and domain name used to receive VIP applications
2) The instruction from Ministers or Permanent Secretary to DoHSC officials to create that address
3) A copy of all messages sent to the VIP lane email address
4) A copy of correspondence between DoHSC and Lord Paul Deighton concerning his role in PPE procurement as part of "parallel supply chain" operation (eg letter of appointment, instructions to establish/operate a VIP lane, terms of appointment)

Yours faithfully,
P John

Department of Health and Social Care

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Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

You response to my FoI requirest "PPE Procurement VIP Lane/Parallel Supply Chain" is now very overdue.

See below for details;
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

P. John

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

you'll no doubt be aware of decision of Mr Justice Chamberlain that the failure to publish information about the PPE contracts breached the “vital public function” of transparency over how “vast quantities” of taxpayers’ money was spent.

Please could you provide the information I have requested from you using FoIA: you are breaking the law.

Yours faithfully,

P. John

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Health and Social Care's handling of my FOI request 'PPE Procurement VIP Lane/Parallel Supply Chain'.

You have failed to supply information first request from you on 18 December 2020. You are presently breaking the law.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

P. John

FreedomofInformation, Department of Health and Social Care

Dear Mr/Ms John,

Thank you for your email. I apologise for the length of time it is taking to respond to your FOI request.

DHSC does not conduct internal reviews until a response to the initial case has been issued. Although organisations can choose to conduct an internal review to assess the handling process where they have taken more than 20 working days to respond, DHSC uses the internal review process once the initial case is complete to ensure that any exemptions that have been used have been applied correctly, and that all information within the scope of the request was considered.

We will therefore not be conducting an internal review. We will respond to your FOI request as soon as we are able.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
Department of Health and Social Care

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Dear FreedomofInformation,

concerning this FoIA request;
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

I'm surprised to that you would refuse to conduct an Internal Reviews when an FoIA request is as long overdue as this one, and disappointed to note that yet another month has passed without the information requested being provided.

Please can I insist that you conduct an internal review into the handling of this request, explain the failure to furnish the requested information, and estimate when you will provide the information.

Failing the above, a complaint to the ICO will soon follow.

Yours sincerely,

P. John

FreedomofInformation, Department of Health and Social Care

Dear Mr/Ms John,

I am sorry that you are dissatisfied with the department's response to your email. However, I can only reiterate that DHSC does not conduct internal reviews until a response to the initial case has been issued. As you are aware, DHSC uses the internal review process once the initial case is complete to ensure that any exemptions that have been used have been applied correctly, and that all information within the scope of the request was considered. We do not carry out internal reviews to assess the handling process where we have taken more than 20 working days to respond.

As previously stated, we will not be conducting an internal review. We will respond to your FOI requests as soon as we are able.

Please note that any further correspondence on this topic that is not a specific request for recorded information will be logged but may not be responded to.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
Department of Health and Social Care

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Department of Health and Social Care

2 Attachments

Dear Mr John,

Please find attached the Department of Health and Social Care's response
to your recent FOI request (our ref: FOI-1282922).

Yours sincerely, 

Ruiz Alexander
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care

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P. John left an annotation ()

"Lord Deighton, who was once a Goldman Sachs executive, remains involved in business and has financial or personal connections to at least seven companies that were awarded lucrative government contracts totalling nearly $300 million, the Times has learned. "

Source NYT; Waste, Negligence and Cronyism: Inside Britain’s Pandemic Spending
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020...