The UK is still not taking part in an EU medical equipment purchasing scheme despite the health secretary claiming that it had now signed up, Brussels has said.
At a Downing Street press briefing on Tuesday, Matt Hancock said there was “no political decision” not to join the procurement scheme and “we joined so we are now members of that scheme”.
However EU officials confirmed on Wednesday that the UK was not involved, despite the deadline for four rounds of purchasing being extended to 12 April to allow for more orders of gowns, ventilators and other medical equipment – well after the UK claimed it had missed the deadline to participate.
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“They are not participating in any of the existing schemes but they have indicated that they would be open to participating in any future schemes,” an EU official told The Independent.
The UK is a member of the EU’s longstanding joint procurement agreement, the legal basis on which such orders have been conducted – but it has been so since 2014 when the agreement was created and Britain was a member state, a status it inherited in the Brexit transition period.
A European Commission spokesperson told reporters at a daily press briefing that the UK had “ample opportunity” to take part in the scheme given its officials were present at four meetings in Brussels where it was discussed. A timeline reconstructed by The Independent at the bottom of this article illustrates the way events played out.
Over a period of weeks ministers, civil servants, and spokespeople for the government have oscillated between claiming they did not want to take part in the scheme and claiming that they did not do so because of a miscommunication.
The UK was also still able to place orders under the scheme well after Downing Street claimed to have missed the deadline.
The EU has placed four different tenders for medical equipment since the start of the crisis, three for personal protective equipment (PPE) and one for ventilators. No equipment has yet been delivered under the scheme, but the quantities and timelines for delivery are agreed individually by member states when they place orders.
The programme uses the purchasing power of the 500 million person single market to secure priority orders during a time of a global shortage. The UK is allowed to participate by virtue of being in the Brexit transition period.
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The UK’s lack of participation comes at a time when NHS workers and care staff are warning of shortages of equipment, with dozens of clinicians on the frontline now dead from coronavirus.
Most recently the top civil servant at the Foreign Office Sir Simon McDonald told MPs at a hearing in Westminster on Tuesday that it had been a “political decision” not to join the scheme, recounting how he had spelled out the options to ministers. Mr Hancock denied the claim soon after at the daily Downing Street briefing, which led to Sir Simon withdrawing his comments, explaining that he had made them “due to a misunderstanding”.
Asked whether anyone had leant on the civil servant to retract his story, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “It is important that select committees are given accurate information and that’s why he corrected what he had said. He took the opportunity to correct the record very quickly and in a very clear way.”
A European Commission spokesperson said on Wednesday that it had announced as early as 31 January that help for member states with the organisation of joint procurement schemes was forthcoming.
“This idea of joint procurement and reporting on the states of the medical supplies of member states was a recurring topic on the agenda of the health security meetings.
“So the UK was, as all other members of the health security committee meetings, aware of the work that was ongoing and had ample opportunity to express its wish to participate in a joint procurement if it wanted to do so. Why it did not participate – this is obviously something on which we cannot comment.”
The timeline of the episode shows how the government handled the situation:
4 February
British officials attended a meeting in Brussels during which the European Commission said it was ready to help organise the bulk-buying medical equipment using the power of the single market.
2 March
British officials attended another EU meeting where the commission’s health department said 20 EU countries were ready to join such a scheme for personal protective equipment.
13 March
British officials attended another meeting where EU officials discussed the addition of ventilators to the procurement scheme.
17 March
A spokesperson for the commission confirms in public when asked by journalists whether the UK is able to take part in the procurement scheme.
19 March
The prime minister Boris Johnson is urged by British politicians to join the scheme. In Brussels, the UK takes part in another meeting on joint procurement
24 March
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announces publicly that the commission’s joint procurement initiative had generated “concrete offers of considerable scale at short notice” to supply surgical masks, overalls, goggles, and face shields.
26 March
Asked in the morning why the UK isn’t taking part in the scheme, a Downing Street spokesperson says: “We are no longer members of the EU.” Boris Johnson is accused off being “ideological” for not taking part.
Later in the evening the prime minister’s spokesperson tells Westminster journalists that in fact, a communication error meant the UK had missed the invitation to participate in the scheme
29 March
Asked why the government did not join the scheme, cabinet minister Michael Gove tells The Andrew Marr Show “there is nothing that we can’t do as an independent nation that being part of that scheme would have allowed us to do” adding that there was “communication confusion”.
10 April
Matt Hancock tells a Downing Street briefing the UK is working hard opening new supply lines for protective equipment around the world to fill a shortage.
12 April
The extended deadline for putting orders in the latest round of the EU’s equipment procurement scheme. The UK has placed no orders.
14 April
Cabinet minister Therese Coffey seems to suggest not going the scheme was a deliberate decision, telling LBC radio: “The government has made an assessment that by joining the schemes, it wasn’t going to make any particular difference.”
21 April
The Foreign Office’s top civil servant Sir Simon McDonald tells MPs he briefed ministers about the options and that they made a “political decision” not to join the scheme.
Later in the afternoon, Matt Hancock tells a daily press briefing “as far as I’m aware there was no political decision not to participate in that scheme … we are now members of that scheme”.
Following the briefing by the health secretary, Sir Simon writes to MPs to retract what he told them.
22 April
Contrary to what Matt Hancock said the day before, EU officials tell The Independent: “They are not participating in any of the existing schemes but they have indicated that they would be open to participating in any future schemes.” In Brussels, a Commission spokesperson refers to the meetings the EU attended and says there was “ample opportunity” to join. At a briefing in Westminster, a Downing Street spokesperson says “nobody” leant on Sir Simon to get him to retract his report to MPs.
