Matt Hancock acted unlawfully when his department did not reveal details of contracts it had signed during the Covid pandemic, a court has ruled.
A judge said the health secretary had “breached his legal obligation” by not publishing details within 30 days of contracts being signed.
The public had a right to know where the “vast” amounts spent had gone and how contracts were awarded, he added.
The government said it fully recognised the “importance of transparency”.
But Labour claimed the government’s awarding of contracts was “plagued by a lack of transparency, cronyism and waste”.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has struck deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Good Law Project: Government in breach of the law
“This judgement is a victory for all of us concerned with proper governance and proof of the power of litigation to hold government to account,”
The Good Law Project .
