High Court finds Matt Hancock acted unlawfully over COVID contracts

A High Court judge has ruled this week (19 February 2021) that Matt Hancock’s failure to publish details of contracts related to the COVID-19 pandemic response within 30 days was unlawful, breaching the “vital function” of transparency over how billions of taxpayers’ money was spent. The case was brought forward by the Good Law Project, an organisation that is in the process of many legal challenges against the government’s procurement of services during the pandemic, including PPE contracts.

UK Statistics Authority calls out Tories for misleading COVID-19 testing figures

Tory Health Secretary Matt Hancock received scathing of criticism of official government figures in a letter published today (2 June 2020) from Mr David Norgrove chairman of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA).

The watchdog’s response to government publication of official data on COVID-19 tests in England described the figures as of “limited value” and called out that the “aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding”.

Dominic Cummings flagrantly breached lockdown at height of pandemic

It has emerged that, senior No.10 aide Dominic Cummings travelled hundreds of miles from London to County Durham during the lockdown when he had virus symptoms. This comes after the resignation of Prof. Neil Ferguson, who ignored the law to visit his partner in another home. Back in April the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland, Dr Catherine Calderwood was also forced to resign after flouting lockdown measures, which she herself had advocated for.