Personal protective equipment supplied by a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone did not meet required safety standards and “could seriously harm or kill patients” if used, the UK government has argued in court.
Opening a high court trial for the Department of Health and Social Care, Paul Stanley KC said the company, PPE Medpro, had not complied with technical manufacturing processes to ensure that the 25m surgical gowns it provided were sterile.
The DHSC is seeking repayment of the full £122m it paid for the gowns to PPE Medpro, which Mone first recommended to ministers during the Covid pandemic in May 2020.
PPE Medpro is defending the claim, arguing that the gowns were manufactured in China to the necessary standard of sterility, and that the DHSC agreed to the process before it awarded the contract.
In its claim, the DHSC says the gowns were marked as sterile and with “CE”, which denotes fulfilment of European technical standards, but did not have the required number after it that shows which approved quality assurance organisation has certified them. Health officials saw this when they first inspected the gowns in the UK in September 2020 and refused to release them for use in the NHS.
In his opening submission to the judge, Mrs Justice Cockerill, Stanley referred to a statement made for the case by a DHSC official responsible for quality control of medical products.
“His evidence is categorical; his team would not have considered using the gowns as sterile surgical gowns,” the submission says. “Without the relevant assurances of conformity that the gowns met sterility requirements, the potential impact on safety was such that they could seriously harm or kill patients and so could not be released for use.”
The DHSC awarded the gowns contract, 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 then Conservative government’s “VIP lane”, which gave high priority to companies recommended by people with political connections. Mone, who rose to prominence running her lingerie company, Ultimo, was appointed to the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2015.
Mone and her husband, the Isle of Man-based businessman Doug Barrowman, had for years publicly distanced themselves from the company until in November 2023 the couple confirmed their involvement and said Barrowman was an investor and chair of the PPE Medpro “consortium”.
Setting out how the gowns contract was awarded, the DHSC said in its submission that Mone had “pressed Medpro’s case” with officials.
Mone did not attend the hearing but Barrowman was in the courtroom, sitting with his lawyers. Neither they nor any PPE Medpro employees who were involved in securing the contract, or members of the consortium, are listed to give evidence.
Charles Samek KC, representing PPE Medpro, said the gowns did comply with the required standards for sterility, and the DHSC had approved 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.
The high court action is separate to the investigation by the National Crime Agency into whether Mone and Barrowman committed any criminal offences during the process of procuring the contracts. The couple have denied any criminal wrongdoing.
In his submission, Samek said there was a concern that the NCA investigation, which he described as “long-running and seemingly never-ending”, was being conducted at the same time as the DHSC’s high court claim “to exert pressure” on the company and people connected to it. The NCA investigation was “hanging … like Damocles’ sword over PPE Medpro, without ever seemingly being progressed”, his submission said.
The high court trial is scheduled to last five weeks.
