Trial date set as government takes Mone-linked Covid PPE provider to High Court

Lawyers for the government are seeking over £100 million

The trial concerns the supply of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Archive)

A trial between the Government and PPE Medpro over the supply of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic is due to start at the High Court in June, lawyers have said.

The Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Care (SSHSC) issued legal proceedings against the company more than two years ago saying it had breached a contract of a deal on the supply of gowns.

SSHSC accuses PPE Medpro of delivering the gowns from China in 2020 without the correct certification showing they had been reliably sterilised.

PPE Medpro denies breaching the contract and said the gowns were properly sterilised, its lawyers said in previously filed court documents.

Lawyers for SSHSC said the Government tested a sample of 60 gowns and that 55 were found to be not sterile.

Tory peer Baroness Michelle Mone recommended the company to ministers, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry heard earlier this year, while Lady Mone denies any wrongdoing (PA Archive)

All the gowns were therefore rejected for being unusable in the NHS and they remain in storage waiting to be disposed of or recycled, they added.

SSHSC lawyers also said the Government paid £122 million for 25 million sterile surgical gowns and that it is seeking repayment of that amount, plus storage and disposal costs, which it estimates to be above £11 million.

Lawyers for PPE Medpro said in court documents that Government inspection teams had examined the gowns and were satisfied that they met the regulatory standard.

At a hearing on Friday, Charles Samek KC, for PPE Medpro, said that there was a delay in delivering the gowns which led to them becoming contaminated with microbes.

He described it as a “real issue”, adding: “They were shipped overseas and decanted into storage containers, sometimes left in the shipping containers.

“It may even have been the case that they sat in containers in farmlands or fields.”

Lawyers for both sides also discussed beginning the trial around June 11, which will take place before Mrs Justice Cockerill.

PPE Medpro faced criticism after it was awarded contracts worth more than £200 million to supply the Government with personal protective equipment at the height of the pandemic.

Tory peer Baroness Michelle Mone recommended the company to ministers, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry heard earlier this year, while Lady Mone denies any wrongdoing.