Dido Harding's appointment to English public health body ruled unlawful
- Reference: 1644937447
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/02/15/dido_harding_appointment_to_english/
- Source link:
The infamous Queen of Carnage – a moniker [1]she earned after presiding over TalkTalk during its catastrophic 2015 cyber-attack which cost around £42m and saw 157,000 users' financial details divulged – was appointed head of the public body in 2020. NIHP was the replacement for the disbanded Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care, during the height of COVID-19 pandemic.
In a ruling [2]handed down today [PDF], the High Court of England and Wales said the September 2020 appointment of Mike Coupe, former CEO of UK supermarket Sainsbury's, as director of testing at NHS Test and Trace (NHSTT), was also unlawful.
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Race and equality think tank the Runnymede Trust won its case against the appointments in a ruling which concluded former health secretary Matt Hancock "did not comply with the public sector equality duty" in relation to their appointments.
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The original claim alleged four appointments connected with the government's pandemic response represented as evidence that the successful candidate had some relevant personal or political connection to the secretary of state. These were the decision to appoint Baroness Harding as chair of the NHS Test and Trace, the decision to appoint Kate Bingham to lead the Vaccines Task Force, the decision to appoint Baroness Harding to be the interim chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, and, lastly, the decision in September 2020 to appoint Mike Coupe to be director of testing at NHS Test and Trace.
While Baroness Harding's husband is a Conservative MP, and she was on the board of J Sainsbury plc when Coupe was CEO, the judges did not conclude that each appointment was "because of a policy or practices that made appointments without open competition, that only persons known to decision-makers or politicians could be appointed, or that no remuneration would be offered made in pursuance of anything capable of being described as a policy."
[6]UK Test and Trace finding consultant habit hard to break: More contracts go to Deloitte and Accenture
[7]UK health secretary confirms end for NHS Digital, architect of the GP data grab debacle
[8]Randox's Certifly app for vaccinated international arrivals has to be side-loaded onto Android phones
[9]Brit MPs blast Baroness Dido Harding's performance as head of NHS Test and Trace
[10]What a Hancock-up: MP's social network app is a privacy disaster
However, the claim succeeded in arguing there had been a breach of public sector equality duty, that is, "the obligation, in the exercise of public functions, to have due regard amongst other matters to the need to eliminate discrimination and to advance equality of opportunities."
The court found "there is no evidence from anyone saying exactly what was done to comply with the public sector equality duty when decisions were taken on how each appointment was to be made."
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The ruling applies to Coupe as director of Testing for NHS Test and Trace and Harding as interim chair of NIHP. The complaint about the May 2020 decision to appoint Baroness Harding to NHSTT was commenced out of time, the court found.
Harding's leadership of Test and Trace has not been without controversy. In October last year, her role in the vital plank of the UK's COVID-19 pandemic response was given a [12]damning verdict by a committee of MPs . The £37bn centrally managed organisation was set up to stem the tide of coronavirus and avoid a second national lockdown.
As well as criticising the overall performance of Test and Trace – the UK had two subsequent lockdowns – the House of Commons Health and Social Care and Science and Technology Committees zeroed in on Harding's lack of transparency in sharing performance data.
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"Partly because it was set up too late, NHS Test and Trace ultimately fell short of the expectations set for it. It has failed to make a significant enough impact on the course of the pandemic to justify the level of public investment it received. It clearly failed on its own terms," said the report published today.
She was criticised for presenting out-of-date information to the committees in relation to her claim that the organisation had helped reduce the R-number – the figure indicating the rate of reproduction of the deadly virus. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2017/02/01/dido_of_carnage_steps_down_from_talktalk/
[2] https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/The-Queen-on-the-application-of-1-Good-Law-Project-2-Runnymede-Trust-v-1-Prime-Minister-SSHSC-judgment.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YgvcOUzMk3nyaDy0mjd7XwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YgvcOUzMk3nyaDy0mjd7XwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YgvcOUzMk3nyaDy0mjd7XwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/23/accenture_deloitte_test_and_trace/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/22/health_secretary_confirms_the_end/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/15/randox_certifly_android_side_loading/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/12/mp_report_test_and_trace/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2018/02/01/matt_hancock_app_privacy_bug_ed_vaizey/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YgvcOUzMk3nyaDy0mjd7XwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/12/mp_report_test_and_trace/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YgvcOUzMk3nyaDy0mjd7XwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Guilty of not doing a equality report
Can you think of a better time that "during a pandemic and a crumbling health care system" to appoint people with better qualifications than "friend of a friend of the Prime Minister"?
Following good equality and diversity practice in making appointments is not about getting dud people with the right skin colour / disability status / gender / sexuality in post; it's about making sure that good people with the wrong skin colour / disability status / gender / sexuality are not kept out.
Re: Guilty of not doing a equality report
Heard from someone recently in the NHS who said Kate Bingham was a really good appointment whatever her connections. She was part of the reason we were doing so well with vaccines in this country. Don’t remember Private Eye having a go at her either. Baroness (Dido) Hardup on the other hand……..
Re: Guilty of not doing a equality report
Although a 'Venture Capitalist', according to Wikipedia Kate Bingham:
" ... was born in London, the only daughter of the barrister and judge Tom Bingham (later Lord Bingham of Cornhill) and Elizabeth (née Loxley) and the eldest of their three children.[4] She attended St Paul's Girls' School, London,[5] before going on to study at Christ Church, Oxford, where she graduated with a first-class degree in Biochemistry (MA)." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bingham)
So she at least had some genuine understanding of biochemistry and vaccination requirements. Whereas Baroness Dido Harding is another PPE graduate:
"She then graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, from Magdalen College, Oxford,[7] where she studied under Vernon Bogdanor and alongside David Cameron,
...
Upon graduating in 1988 she joined the management consultancy McKinsey & Company." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_Harding)
So as far as I am concerned Harding's never actually had a proper job. (Apologies to all those wonderful McKinsey and Company consultants out there, but I've never had any joy or benefit, and quite a lot of pointless pain form McKinsey's 'advice'.). She has always just been telling other people what to do. And her record at TalkTalk was not good.
/Cynic Alert:
But I guess that even this government every now and then has to appoint someone competent, if only by accident.
/End Cynic Alert
Re: Guilty of not doing a equality report
You've got to view it as equivalent to Al Capone getting done for taxes. You've got to get them where you can.
Re: Guilty of not doing a equality report
ASIDE
I've often wondered why, in those TV dramas where the honest cop discovered that his or her colleagues are almost all not the take or downright crooks, they don't just send the information to the relevant tax authorities and suggest they check whether they are paying the correct taxes on their illicit earnings. that way the honest cop wold not have to run the gauntlet of trusting a senior officer who is likely to be the biggest crook of all.
I mean if you have a shoebox full of notes received in bribes from organised criminals via your Inspector or Sergeant, just wrap it up and enclose a note saying "I don't know how much tax Im supposed to pay on all of this illegal money, you'll find so-and-so's fingerprints on the notes and might like to check he / she is paying their correct tax" and take it to HMRC / Internal Revenue as appropriate.
Failing upward
Where to next for Harding and Coupe? It's going to be hard to top being in charge of a disastrous £37B project but I think 'UK Joint Peace Envoys to Russia' might be just the ticket.
Re: Failing upward
I hear Siberia is nice at this time of year...
Re: Failing upward
Siberia is getting quite warm (for Siberia). The current morning book reading on BBC Radio 4 is "The Treeline" by Ben Rawlence, about how global warming means that trees are able to encroach northwards by 50 to 100 meres per year, thawing the permafrost, covering tundra and starving out reindeer.
Full story is that Runnymede failed in two of their claims, only winning the equality issue. Also, The Good Law project run by fox killer Joleyn Maughan failed in all their claims. However Joleyn is claiming that the minor win is a total win for them.
I wouldn't trust Dido Harding being put in charge of a paperclip, let alone make informed decisions.
People whinge about Diane Abbott's maths but Dido has pulled howlers of same magnitude, and arguably more so because they were on production systems...
Guilty of not doing a equality report
the claim succeeded in arguing there had been a breach of public sector equality duty, that is, "the obligation, in the exercise of public functions, to have due regard amongst other matters to the need to eliminate discrimination and to advance equality of opportunities."
The court found "there is no evidence from anyone saying exactly what was done to comply with the public sector equality duty when decisions were taken on how each appointment was to be made."
So during a pandemic and a crumbling health care system the government appointed someone in haste and are now getting into trouble for not doing a proper equality report.
Pathetic.