Transparency in public procurement

 As has been recently covered in the press, the government broke the law by not reporting details of its contracts for PPE in a timely manner.

A good analysis of the importance of this has been written by David Allen Green here.

All I will add is that the concept of transparency is really at the heart of public accountability, and is not merely some bureaucratic nicety as the government appears to have argued.  Hopefully, this was a hangover from the political adviser who seemed to take a perverse pleasure in demonstrating that the law, standards and social norms did not apply to him. (You know who I mean)  The effort and money spent in defending a case where the government was clearly and admittedly in the wrong, is not encouraging.

In a time of crisis it is important that the government and public sector keep the trust of the population.  Probably even more than in normal times.  I hope that is understood by the government.