Company with link to Mone told to repay £122m for faulty PPE supply

In his opening submission to a statement by a health official who had said of the gowns that “the potential impact on safety was such that they could seriously harm or kill patients and so could not be released for use”.

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PPE Medpro’s barrister, Charles Samek KC, argued that the gowns had been properly manufactured and sterilised in China, and that the DHSC had agreed to 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 in his opening.

Cockerill, however, ruled in favour of the DHSC, determining that the gowns were not validly CE marked because no quality assurance organisation, called a “notified body”, had certified the manufacturing process, and PPE Medpro had also breached the contract by failing to comply with other requirements to show the gowns had been validated as sterile.

She rejected the DHSC’s claim for a further £8m it said had been incurred storing the gowns, ruling that these costs had not been proved.