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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rob Evans, David Pegg and Felicity Lawrence

UK health department played ‘fast and loose’ when awarding Covid contracts to Randox

A mobile Covid-19 testing centre, run by Randox, in the grounds of a hotel near Heathrow airport in February 2021.
A mobile Covid-19 testing centre, run by Randox, in the grounds of a hotel near Heathrow airport in February 2021. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Ministers and government officials played “fast and loose” when awarding £777m in Covid contracts to a healthcare firm that employed the Conservative MP Owen Paterson as a lobbyist, the head of parliament’s spending watchdog has said.

In a damning report, the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) concluded that the government made a series of failures, making it impossible to know if the contracts had been awarded properly to Randox.

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