Sonia Kumar asks her first question in the House of Commons
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00:00and protect us against the kind of things we've seen previously.
00:03Sonia Thurman.
00:04Thank you, Mr Speaker. As an NHS physiotherapist who's worked during the COVID-19 pandemic,
00:10I have the misfortune of witnessing first hand how crony contracts resulted in wasted
00:14resources. Whilst these contracts may be intended to reinforce the NHS during the unprecedented
00:20crisis, they did a disservice to both our NHS professionals and patients. Can the Minister
00:26outline what tangible steps the Government are taking to avoid this waste of resources
00:31in the future and reassure the constituency of Dudley and the wider nation that the Government
00:36will take public spending seriously?
00:41Thank you to my honourable friend for the question, but also for your service during
00:46COVID and to all the health and care staff who risked their lives to protect us. As you
00:52set out, billions were spent on PPE that was either unusable, overpriced or underdelivered.
00:59And this Government is absolutely determined to learn those lessons and safeguard every
01:03pound of taxpayers' money. I've met the Public Sector Fraud Authority and set out
01:08our commitment to driving down fraud across Government and we are determined to learn
01:13the lessons from the work of the COVID Commissioner that will report to Parliament.