Hull safety specialist Arco’s 10-point plan for overhauling PPE procurement has been placed at the centre of the Westminster review into what went wrong.
Constituency MP Emma Hardy has raised the market-leading company’s concerns in a debate on the issue.
As revealed by Business Live earlier this month, the company found itself unable to supply frontline NHS workers at the time of greatest need - despite masks and gloves being sat in its huge national distribution centre.
It led chairman Thomas Martin to review the process - putting the thoughts from the £300 million turnover family business to the politicians behind the Department for Health and Social Care’s strategy.
Now his paper has been raised in a Westminster Hall debate on the National Audit Office report into procurement during the Covid-19 pandemic, and followed up with a letter to the Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary heading it up, Julia Lopez MP.
Miss Hardy said: “The government's decisions in obtaining and distributing PPE at the start of the pandemic made a difficult situation much worse. There are serious questions to be answered on how contracts were awarded and public money spent.
"Arco are a great local company with extensive expertise in this area who should have been one of the first on any list. Instead, they found themselves on the outside. I raised their experiences and their recommendations in Parliament today and have followed up with a letter to the Minister.”
In her letter she describes Arco as a “world-leading expert in PPE and distribution” adding “it would have expected to play a central role in the government’s response to the Covid pandemic”.
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The 10 recommendations are included in full. As reported, they include a call for a formal registration of competent PPE suppliers; a government department review and stress test of purchasing frameworks and local authority and care home staff to be upskilled in PPE standards “following a series of high-profile procurement failures” as Mr Martin saw it.
Describing the flawed systems and “failure to make use of Arco’s expertise in procurement and quality control”, Miss Hardy said it led to non-compliant products often entering the supply chain.
“I believe Arco has earned the right to play a leading role in contributing to the debate with government and policymakers on the future strategy for health and safety management in the workplace,” she concluded. “I would urge you to give their position paper and recommendations the serious consideration they merit.”
Miss Hardy now awaits a response.