Meg Hillier

A public spending watchdog has found that the government spent £10 billion extra in inflated prices for pandemic-battling personal protective equipment (PPE) due to an “inadequate” stockpile and a surge in global demand. Procurement chiefs at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) faced inflated prices for safety kit, paying 1,300% more for some items […]

A senior MP has slammed the“fast track VIP lane” which allowed people in the Westminster bubble to recommend companies to receive “special treatment” by government if they were supplying masks, gloves, aprons and other PPE during the pandemic. Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee, said she was “appalled” by the […]

Durham Police has been accused of giving Boris Johnson’s senior adviser “special treatment” when he was investigated over his trip to the north of England during the first lockdown. It is claimed that Cummings was shown a key statement “as a courtesy” before it was made public. The force had explained why it was being […]

MPs have hit out at the lack of transparency behind a process of distributing billions of taxpayers’ money to towns across England, fuelling fears of “political bias”. The cross-party Commons Public Accounts Committee said the process for selecting communities to benefit from the £3.6 billion Towns Fund was “not impartial” and risked undermining the integrity […]