division_name: Covid-19: Contracts and Public Inquiry
motion: <p class="indent" pid="b912.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House believes the Government has failed to give full details of the process behind the issuing of emergency covid-19 contracts; and therefore calls on the Government immediately to commence the covid-19 public inquiry, announced by the Prime Minister on <phrase class="date" code="2021-05-12">12 May</phrase> 2021.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b913.3/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;attitudes to the UK Union&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b913.3/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;on the record for everybody to see.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2021-02-22">22 February</phrase> 2021; Vol. 689, c. 638.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b922.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a huge volume of correspondence was coming to Ministers via their personal email addresses&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2021-06-28">28 June</phrase> 2021; Vol. 698, c. 33.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b922.3/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Ministers have passed responsibility between the Cabinet Office and Department of Health and Social Care&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b931.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;act solely in terms of the public interest.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b931.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b931.0/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b931.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b931.0/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b931.0/15" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b933.1/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Personally, would an inquiry be an unwelcome distraction for me personally, at the moment, when I&#8217;m very focussed on the vaccine programme and the vaccine programme we might need in the autumn? Who knows, I think it would be an extra burden that wasn&#8217;t necessary.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b940.0/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;circumstances would lead a fair minded and informed observer to conclude that there was a real possibility, or a real danger,&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b946.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the Government has failed to give full details of the process&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b946.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;emergency covid-19 contracts&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b946.2/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;we found that the ministers had properly declared their interests, and we found no evidence of their involvement in procurement decisions or contract management.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b948.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;insufficient documentation on key decisions&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b948.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;contracts&#8230;have not been published in a timely manner&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b948.0/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;diminished public transparency&#8230;the lack of adequate documentation&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b953.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;apparent systemic biases in the award of PPE contracts that favoured those with political connections to the party of government in Westminster&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b953.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We have in this country one of the most honest public sectors of any country in the world.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2021-02-25">25 February</phrase> 2021; Vol. 689, c. 1096.]</p>