However, Hallett rejected the NCA’s application for PPE Medpro to be excluded from the inquiry, and ruled instead that the evidence will be heard in a closed session, attended by a maximum of five journalists, with the evidence only to be made public at the end of any possible criminal proceedings.
The National Crime Agency has since May 2021 been investigating potential criminal offences committed in the procurement of the contracts awarded to the company, PPE Medpro, and argued that its investigation could be prejudiced if the inquiry heard evidence in public.
Last December as the Covid inquiry, chaired by Lady Hallett, prepared to examine the government’s procurement of vital medical supplies during the Covid crisis, the NCA applied for all evidence relating to PPE Medpro to be excluded.
The Covid inquiry will hear detailed evidence about the multimillion-pound PPE contracts awarded during the crisis to a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone, but in private, the inquiry chair has ruled.
Lawyers representing families whose relatives died during the crisis have argued that the inquiry should hear fuller evidence about the government’s procurement and its controversial “VIP lane”, including PPE Medpro, and criticised the NCA’s application.
