Hancock giving top health job to Dido is ruled ‘unlawful’
FORMER health secretary Matt Hancock’s appointment of Tory peer Dido Harding as head of a major health quango has been deemed unlawful by the High Court, it was revealed yesterday.
Two judges ruled that Mr Hancock did not comply with a public sector equality duty when naming Baroness Harding as boss of the National Institute for Health Protection.
Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Swift said he also breached the duty with the appointment of Mike Coupe, a former colleague of Baroness Harding, as director of testing at NHS Test and Trace.
Last year a damning report from MPs said there was ‘no clear evidence’ that the expensive test and trace system, presided over by Baroness Harding, had actually cut infections. Nicholas Macpherson, former permanent secretary at the Treasury said it was ‘the most wasteful and inept public spending programme of all time’.
Baroness Harding was appointed interim executive chairman of the National Institute for Health Protection, which replaced Public Health England, in August 2020. Mr Coupe was appointed a month later.
Equality think-tank the Runnymede Trust won its case after the judges heard arguments at the High Court in December.
Campaign group the Good Law Project joined the trust – arguing that the Government had not adopted an ‘open’ process when making appointments to posts ‘critical to the pandemic response’ – but its claim was dismissed.
Lawyers representing the two organisations suggested that people ‘outside the tight circle’ in which senior Conservative politicians and their friends moved were not being given opportunities.
Jason Coppel QC, who led the two organisations’ legal teams, told the judges that the challenge was based on equality legislation and public law.
He said the Government had a ‘policy or practice’ of ‘making appointments to posts critical to the pandemic response’ without adopting any, or any sufficient, ‘fair or open competitive processes’.
‘Protection from a closed shop’
Mr Coppel said people ‘less likely to be known or connected to decision-makers’ were put at a disadvantage.
Ministers disputed the claims. The judges said in a written ruling: ‘We will grant a declaration to the Runnymede Trust that the Secretary of State… did not comply with the public sector equality duty.’
Dr Halima Begum, of the trust said after the ruling: ‘The judgment… shows the importance of the public sector equality duty and its role in protecting the people of this nation from the closed shop of Government appointments.’
Mr Hancock’s spokesman pointed out that the judgement said there was no evidence Baroness Harding secured her post through ‘personal or political connections’.