Government statement regarding the Boardman review of COVID-19 Procurement
Updated 7 May 2021
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We have today published a second report by Nigel Boardman into COVID-19 procurement.
Following Mr Boardman’s first report on COVID-19 communications procurement in the Cabinet Office, published in December, he was asked to conduct a second, wider review, exploring similar themes but expanded to cover five key parts of the government’s response to the pandemic. These areas (PPE, ventilators, vaccines, test and trace and food parcels for the clinically extremely vulnerable) had been identified in previous reports, such as those by the National Audit Office, as being areas where there may be lessons to be learned for the future in terms of the way in which procurement was done.
The report identifies lessons learned and contains 28 recommendations for improvements to procurement processes across government.
The government is strongly committed to learning lessons from the pandemic. Following the publication of Mr Boardman’s first report last year, we have made good progress in addressing its recommendations, with the majority either fully or partly implemented by the end of April 2021.
We are also accepting today all 28 recommendations contained within Mr Boardman’s second report. Alex Chisholm, Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary and Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, has written to the Public Accounts Committee today, setting out his role in overseeing the implementation of the recommendations. A full update on progress will be provided to the PAC in due course.