Families bereaved by Covid-19 have said they fear a “whitewash” when the inquiry into the pandemic publishes its next report on Tuesday.
The Covid Inquiry is set to publish its findings on procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) at midday.
It is expected to address controversies including the so-called “VIP lane” contracts granted to some suppliers during the pandemic.
But it will not include evidence on PPE firm Medpro, which was ordered to repay £148 million to the Government after the High Court found it had breached a contract to supply millions of surgical gowns to the government.
The firm, linked to Conservative peer Baroness Michelle Mone via her husband Doug Barrowman, has also been the subject of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation since 2021 over its supplying of PPE during the pandemic.
Both Lady Mone, 54, and Mr Barrowman, 61, deny wrongdoing.
Although the Covid Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, has heard evidence relating to Medpro, Tuesday’s report will not include those details because of the ongoing NCA investigation.
The inquiry has said it will release its findings on Medpro once any criminal proceedings had concluded.
Nicola Brook, a solicitor from law firm Broudie Jackson Canter which represents families from the Covid-19 Families for Justice group, said the report “risks being a total whitewash” because of the decision not to include its findings on Medpro.
Ms Brook said: “The Medpro scandal is at the very heart of everything that was wrong about procurement during the pandemic, yet it is being kept secret from the people who need answers most, my clients the bereaved.”
She added that her clients hope the report would “reveal the true extent of the shambolic and wasteful attempts by the government to get PPE as medical staff treated those dying from Covid wearing bin bags” and that Lady Hallett would “pull no punches in her assessment of one of the biggest scandals ever seen in this country”.
PPE Medpro, a consortium led by Mr Barrowman, was awarded government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply personal protective equipment after Lady Mone recommended it to ministers.
But the firm found itself at the centre of the controversy over so-called “VIP lane” contracts granted to some suppliers during the pandemic.
Despite being ordered to repay £148 million by the High Court, the company was wound up last year, meaning the Government is unlikely to see most of that money.
The NCA probe remains ongoing, and in June 2024, the agency said an unnamed 46-year-old man from Barnet, north London, had been arrested as part of the investigation.
