7 COVID-19 PPE Extremely Urgent Procurement in England: A Cautionary Tale for an Overheating Public Governance
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Albert Sanchez-Graells
Abstract
One of the notorious failings of the UK government in its reaction to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was its inability to ensure that the health and social care frontline had proper and undisrupted access to essential personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, gowns and gloves. The story of the failings leading to the PPE fiasco runs largely in parallel to the also failed attempt at boosting the availability of ventilators through the ‘Ventilator Challenge’, and the not more successful subsequent ‘Test and Trace’ programme, including its doubling down in ‘Operation Moonshot’ – which, at the time of writing, has been assessed to be having a marginal impact on the prevention and management of the second wave.
These stories offer a cautionary tale for the future management of extremely urgent public procurement, which will become ever more important given the serious risks of social and ecological breakdown derived from climate change. These stories show the very significant problems that result from having a public sector with insufficient procurement capability, an inadequate procurement strategy and (perhaps more importantly) a very weak procurement governance system largely incapable of ensuring the accountability for outsourced tasks in the public interest (Boeger and Sanchez-Graells, 2019). Perhaps even worse, these stories are not news at all, and the underlying problems not only concern extremely urgent procurement, but also complex procurement projects, as the second phase of the Grenfell Tower Disaster Inquiry is further evidencing.
Abstract
One of the notorious failings of the UK government in its reaction to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was its inability to ensure that the health and social care frontline had proper and undisrupted access to essential personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, gowns and gloves. The story of the failings leading to the PPE fiasco runs largely in parallel to the also failed attempt at boosting the availability of ventilators through the ‘Ventilator Challenge’, and the not more successful subsequent ‘Test and Trace’ programme, including its doubling down in ‘Operation Moonshot’ – which, at the time of writing, has been assessed to be having a marginal impact on the prevention and management of the second wave.
These stories offer a cautionary tale for the future management of extremely urgent public procurement, which will become ever more important given the serious risks of social and ecological breakdown derived from climate change. These stories show the very significant problems that result from having a public sector with insufficient procurement capability, an inadequate procurement strategy and (perhaps more importantly) a very weak procurement governance system largely incapable of ensuring the accountability for outsourced tasks in the public interest (Boeger and Sanchez-Graells, 2019). Perhaps even worse, these stories are not news at all, and the underlying problems not only concern extremely urgent procurement, but also complex procurement projects, as the second phase of the Grenfell Tower Disaster Inquiry is further evidencing.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of Figures and Tables ix
- Notes on Contributors xi
- Preface xiii
- Series Editor’s Preface xv
- Introduction 1
-
Justice
- Ruling the Pandemic 15
- Remote Justice and Vulnerable Litigants: The Case of Asylum 27
- Virtual Poverty? What Happens When Criminal Trials Go Online? 41
- Genera-Relational Justice in the COVID-19 Recovery Period: Children in the Criminal Justice System 53
- Racism as Legal Pandemic: Thoughts on Critical Legal Pedagogies 65
- Rights and Solidarity during COVID-19 79
- COVID-19 PPE Extremely Urgent Procurement in England: A Cautionary Tale for an Overheating Public Governance 93
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The Social
- Accountability for Health and the NHS under COVID-19: The ‘Left behind’ and the Rule of Law in Post-Brexit UK 107
- COVID-19 in Adult Social Care: Futures, Funding and Fairness 119
- Housing, Homelessness and COVID-19 131
- Education, Austerity and the COVID-19 Generation 143
- What Have We Learned about the Corporate Sector in COVID-19? 155
- Social Security under and after COVID-19 171
- Maintaining the Divide: Labour Law and COVID-19 187
- From Loss to (Capital) Gains: Reflections on Tax and Spending in the Pandemic Aftermath 199
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of Figures and Tables ix
- Notes on Contributors xi
- Preface xiii
- Series Editor’s Preface xv
- Introduction 1
-
Justice
- Ruling the Pandemic 15
- Remote Justice and Vulnerable Litigants: The Case of Asylum 27
- Virtual Poverty? What Happens When Criminal Trials Go Online? 41
- Genera-Relational Justice in the COVID-19 Recovery Period: Children in the Criminal Justice System 53
- Racism as Legal Pandemic: Thoughts on Critical Legal Pedagogies 65
- Rights and Solidarity during COVID-19 79
- COVID-19 PPE Extremely Urgent Procurement in England: A Cautionary Tale for an Overheating Public Governance 93
-
The Social
- Accountability for Health and the NHS under COVID-19: The ‘Left behind’ and the Rule of Law in Post-Brexit UK 107
- COVID-19 in Adult Social Care: Futures, Funding and Fairness 119
- Housing, Homelessness and COVID-19 131
- Education, Austerity and the COVID-19 Generation 143
- What Have We Learned about the Corporate Sector in COVID-19? 155
- Social Security under and after COVID-19 171
- Maintaining the Divide: Labour Law and COVID-19 187
- From Loss to (Capital) Gains: Reflections on Tax and Spending in the Pandemic Aftermath 199
- Index 209
