Transparency data

COVID-19 testing procurement

Published 21 December 2022

The government has published further information about the procurement of critical testing equipment and services during the early months of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Details of all government contracts, including for COVID-19 testing, are published in line with our transparency obligations. This further information, beyond those obligations, provides a clear overview of the testing procurement process during the pandemic.

COVID-19 testing

The pandemic was unprecedented and at the beginning in early 2020 there was very limited testing capacity and infrastructure for COVID-19 within the UK.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) moved swiftly to increase COVID-19 testing capacity across the UK. Working in partnership with businesses, universities and public sector bodies, it created the UK’s largest testing network from scratch, capable of providing millions of tests a day. This network played a crucial role in breaking the chains of transmission, protecting the NHS, and saving lives.

Procurement during a pandemic

The exceptional circumstances in the early months of the pandemic meant there was significant global demand for testing goods and services, so the government had to procure these quickly to ensure the UK had the resources it needed.

To do this, testing goods and services were procured under Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. This allows public bodies to award contracts in exceptional circumstances such as an extreme emergency or because a product is only available from a particular supplier.

Most contracts awarded in the early months of the pandemic were awarded through this necessary route but as DHSC systems developed and market capacity grew, a new national framework and purchasing system was established to ensure competition when awarding contracts.

By 2022, the majority of testing contracts were awarded using the new framework and system, with very few contracts awarded using these emergency regulations. Where it is still applied, it is almost always because the product needed can only be provided by a particular supplier.

Working with industry

Partnerships with industry were essential to this effort. The government asked existing suppliers for support and a call was put out for wider industry to support the nation. Many suppliers provided services and goods to the wider COVID-19 response as well as to the testing network.

Making offers

Offers of assistance were received through a variety of channels. The main routes were a purpose built GOV.UK portal and 4 dedicated DHSC mailboxes. Some offers of help were also routed through ministers’ offices, parliamentarians or senior officials.

The 4 shared mailboxes used were for ‘COVID testing priority contacts’, ‘COVID19 innovation’, ‘COVID testing triage’ and ‘COVID19 offer triage’. These inboxes were used at different points between March 2020 and October 2021 to capture suppliers offering support for testing. Some suppliers emailed their offer directly to a mailbox (self-referring); offers from others were forwarded into a mailbox, or to relevant officials working on the response by ministers, parliamentarians and other parts of government.

Triaging offers

All offers of support were assessed and triaged by civil servants working on testing procurement. A large volume of emails and offers were received every day and officials looked for offers that would support the scaling up of the UK’s testing network as quickly as possible.

Where emails related to specific, urgent offers or to services or products that were high priority (for example in an area of shortage or an innovative technology) or were from a supplier with an established reputation in diagnostics, or wider health services, the email could be tagged as “VIP”, “Fast Track” or “Priority”. These tags helped the DHSC team to identify which offers and emails should be prioritised to ensure viable offers progressed quickly to meet the nation’s need for testing. The tags also helped officials to provide progress reports to ministers and senior colleagues. The tags did not relate to the status of the referrer and suppliers were not aware of the tagging system.

There was no separate VIP route or channel for testing suppliers and ministers were not involved in the evaluation or procurement process for contracts.

Evaluating offers

All offers were evaluated by commercial professionals against the same criteria, assessing value for money and their ability to meet the government’s rigorous standards and deliver the service required. The COVID-19 testing services provided by suppliers were often for complex or innovative scientific products or services so where necessary, an expert technical evaluation process was also carried out.

Identifying suppliers and referrers

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is publishing the first evidenced point of contact identified from the records it now holds on behalf of DHSC, but that information may not be complete.

The list below shows the range of initial routes used by suppliers that went on to be successfully awarded government contracts for testing services or goods.

The ‘identified by’ column (second column in the list) shows who initially identified the supplier and which part of, or person in government they flagged them to.

The ‘referrer’ column (third column in the list) shows which individual or team passed their information to the COVID-19 response and how they did this; either to a designated mailbox or to an official working on the response.

In line with standard government practice, UKHSA has named only senior officials at director level or above.

Where a supplier is marked as an existing DHSC supplier, this includes DHSC and other organisations the department oversees, including the NHS and Public Health England (PHE).

The roles listed were held by individuals at the time the supplier was identified and referred.

Table of suppliers and referrers

(horizontal scroll bar is at foot of table)

Supplier	Identified by	Referrer	Goods/service provided
Abbot Rapid Diagnostics Ltd	Third party contacted NHS England (NHSE) employee and Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, DHSC	NHSE employee to covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk	PCR tests, antibody tests, reagents, and laboratory equipment
Accora Ltd	Supplier contacted Lord Lansley	Lord Lansley to Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, DHSC	PCR testing
Aptamer Group Ltd	Supplier self-referred to mailbox covid19triageservice@nhsbsa.nhs.uk	Forwarded from covid19triageservice@nhsbsa.nhs.uk to covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	LFD tests
Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services	Existing DHSC partner	Existing DHSC partner	PCR testing
Bigneat Ltd	Information not held centrally	Information not held centrally	Laboratory equipment
Bio-Rad Laboratories Ltd	Gareth Rhys Williams, Government Chief Commercial Officer, Cabinet Office identified supplier	Gareth Rhys Williams notified Emma Stanton, Director of Supplies and Innovation, NHS Test and Trace. Forwarded to covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	PCR consumables
CAS (Contained Air Solutions ltd)	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Laboratory equipment
Charnwood Campus Management Ltd	Supplier contacted Environment Agency official	Environment Agency official to NHS employee and DHSC officials	Building lease
Dante Labs (Immensa)	Supplier self-referred to online portal	Supplier self-referred to online portal	PCR testing and genomic sequencing
Detact Diagnostics Ltd	Supplier contacted BEIS official	No10 official to Emma Stanton, Director of Supplies and Innovation, NHS Test and Trace	New testing technology
Diasorin Ltd	Supplier self-referred to mailbox covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	Antibody tests
DnaNudge Ltd	Imperial College London contacted Shirley Trundle, Programme Director, National Diagnostic Effort COVID-19	Shirley Trundle, Programme Director, National Diagnostic Effort COVID-19 to covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	PCR tests
Ecolog International (UK) Ltd	Genix Healthcare (third party) contacted Office of Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care	DHSC official to covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	PCR testing
Eurofins Biomnis UK Ltd	Supplier contacted PHE official	PHE <official to covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk>	PCR testing
Hologic Ltd	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Reagents, assays and testing consumables
Hotel Logistics Ltd	Supplier contacted Ministry of Defence (MoD) official	MoD official to covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk	Lateral flow tests
Health Services Laboratories LLP	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	PCR testing
Humasis Co Ltd	Department of International Trade (DIT) official identified list of South Korean test manufacturers	List provided by DIT official to Emma Stanton, Director of Supplies and Innovation, NHS Test and Trace	Lateral flow tests
Innova Medical Group Inc	Tried & Tested (third party) contacted Dominic Cummings, Special Adviser, No 10	William Warr, Special Adviser at No 10 to Emma Stanton, Director of Supplies and Innovation, NHS Test and Trace	Lateral flow tests
IQVIA Technology Services Ltd	Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry contacted NHSE employee and officials at DHSC and the Office of Life Sciences	Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry contacted NHSE employee and officials at DHSC and the Office of Life Sciences	Evaluation and clinical trial support
LGC Ltd	Supplier contacted Prof John Newton, Director of Health Improvement, PHE	Prof John Newton, Director of Health Improvement, PHE, to covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk	Laboratory equipment and reagents
LumiraDx UK Ltd	Lord (David) Prior, Chair of NHS England (third party) contacted the Ministerial Office of Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, DHSC	Ministerial Office of Lord Bethell to Shirley Trundle, Programme Director, National Diagnostic Effort COVID-19	Lateral flow tests
Omega Diagnostics Ltd	Supplier self-referred to mailbox covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	Lateral flow tests
Optigene Ltd	Cabinet Office official contacted the Ministerial Office of Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, DHSC, and NHS employee	Cabinet Office official contacted the Ministerial Office of Lord Bethell and NHS employee	LAMP machines and tests
Origin Ltd	Supplier contacted DHSC official	Office of Life Sciences official to covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk	PCR tests
Pal International Ltd	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Laboratory consumables
Primer Design Ltd	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Reagents
Pro-Lab Diagnostics Ltd	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Laboratory equipment and PCR tests
Qnostics	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Reagents tests
Roche Diagnostics Ltd	Supplier contacted the Ministerial Office of Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, DHSC Existing DHSC supplier	Ministerial Office of Lord Bethell to Prof John Newton, Director of Health Improvement, PHE, officials from PHE and Office of Life Sciences, and covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	Laboratory equipment and consumables, and antibody tests
Sterilab Services	Supplier contacted official at PHE	PHE official to covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	Laboratory equipment and consumables
SureScreen Diagnostics Ltd	Liam Fox MP contacted Office of Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care	Office of Matt Hancock to DHSC officials	Lateral flow tests
Tecan	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Laboratory equipment
The Native Antigen Company	Third party contacted Sir Mark Sedwill, the then Cabinet Secretary, who forwarded directly to his office requesting that they pass on to the appropriate officials	Office of Sir Patrick Vallance, UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk	Reagents
Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings Ltd	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Laboratory equipment
Thriva	Supplier self-referred to mailbox covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk	covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk	Antibody tests
UNA Health	Existing DHSC supplier	Existing DHSC supplier	Antibody tests and lateral flow tests
11 Universities: University College London, University of Birmingham, University of Liverpool, University of Oxford, University of Southampton, University of Warwick, University of York, University of Manchester, King’s College London, Newcastle University, Queen Mary University of London	Existing DHSC partnerships	Existing DHSC partnerships
Waters Ltd	Ministerial Office of Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, DHSC contacted supplier	NHS Test and Trace official to covidtestingprioritycontacts@dhsc.gov.uk	Laboratory equipment
Wolf Laboratories Ltd	Supplier self-referred to online portal	Supplier self-referred to online portal	Laboratory equipment