in one example highlighted by the nao, a contract was awarded to the focus group organiser public first cabinet 0ffice minister michael gove and alongside borisjohnson's then top adviser dominic cummings. yet the cabinet office failed to document any consideration of any potential conflicts of interest. by not keeping proper records, by not being transparent about when these contracts were awarded and what they were doing, it lays the government open to these accusations, whether they are true or not. and, certainly, this weird vip route through, where certain companies got a closer look, because they were recommended by mps, peers... i mean, this is not something mps wanted, and yet it has happened. and the question is — did anyone know about it and put people through that route, and a lot of us would not have known there was a fast track route to recommend certain companies. the nao also confirmed that where ministers' offices, mps or health chiefs recommended suppliers, their applications were fast tracked. public first said it was hired on a pay as you go arrangement that meant it c

michael goes's of his said the nao found no evidence of ministers involvement in the decisions.ny and its recommendations for improvement. andy verity, bbc news. new cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel will be banned in the uk from 2030. that's just one of the announcements made by the prime minister as part of his ten—point plan to create jobs and address climate change. among other measures in his so—called "green revolution" — greater investment in electric cars — including expanding charging infrastructure and extending grants to make vehicles cheaper. plans to quadruple the amount of offshore wind power — enough to provide energy to every home in the uk. greater investment in nuclear energy, with a focus on smaller—scale nuclear plants. and measures to make homes and public buildings warmer and more energy efficient. while the plan has been welcomed by environmental groups, critics say the £4 billion allocated is far too small for the scale of the challenge and some of the plans, they say, have already been announced. 0ur environment analyst roger harrabin rep

here's stav da naos. too bad today with more sunshine than yesterday and some nice sunsets up than yesterday and some nice sunsets up and down the country between the clouds. as we head through tonight it turns wet and windy across the north and west of the uk and northern ireland and western scotla nd northern ireland and western scotland but elsewhere it should remain largely dry and fairly mild. the new area of low pressure will put in from the west and you will see the isobars squeezing in and it will turn windy but the south—east closer to the high pressure and here it will stay dry it with clear spells and we could see mist and fog developing across the south—east. further north and west, it turns wetter with the wind picking up, so a wet and windy night to come here. double figure values with the wet and windy weather and on the call side further south and east where we have the clear spells. into wednesday, the area of low pressure not moving east quickly because it's bumping into the high pressur

the head of the nao, gareth davies, told our business presenter sima kotecha that it was criticial theto certain suppliers. we are very careful to set out the context here, the extraordinary volume of ppe that needed to be procured very fast. everyone except it wouldn't be possible to carry out the normal tender process in every case here, inviting bids and taking time to evaluate them and so on, there wasn't time for that. the question is what control is needed to replace that competition? what we found is in some cases there was a clear explanation of why a particular company had been picked and the due diligence carried out to ensure they could deliver but that wasn't the case in all of the ones we looked at. that is a really important finding because clearly for the size of contracts we are talking about, often tens of millions of pounds each, then it is critical that the government has a clear explanation of why it was picked and all of that is in the public domain. government missed its own rules on publishing these contracts in a timely way and that lack of transparency allows a

let's move on to the guardian and, yeah, david, this nao report is, well, it is breathtaking, i don'tit for many years. you now, eventually, as we all now, there is bound to be a public inquiry into who did what and when through this whole covid prices, and it promises to be pretty explosive, not least due to our lack of readiness to provide the necessary ppe in early days. and here, to nobody's great surprise, i suspect, we are told that corners were cut, that there was this high priority channel 4 uk government contracts where bids were ten times more likely to be successful. —— this high priority channel for uk government contracts. it isa channel for uk government contracts. it is a huge issue, and the sums of money involved are not small. and, katy, half of these contracts, half of these deals were done without a competitive tender, some of them with tens of millions of pounds, the contract not even signed when work had started. i mean, this is going to be potentially very damaging, isn't it? i think it is, as to be potentially very damaging, isn't it? ithink it is, as hasjust be

but the other thing is to think about the importance of information, and that is another thing the naohad information of what existed in local stockpiles or what was the need from local health care organisations, and i think that the first approach should be to try to create that data and architecture of knowledge that allows a quicker reaction on the basis of evidence, notjust on the basis of evidence, notjust on the basis of evidence, notjust on the basis of estimates or guesses, which is what the government was doing at the beginning of the pandemic. perhaps the final thing to say is that in terms of lessons learned, also look at the very difficult centralisation of all these processes for a system that is absolutely atomised, particularly for care homes, and maybe rethink the very strong push for centralisation on the back of savings, which has been driving changes in the nhs supply since 2015. rethink the modelling and maybe think about whether we have pushed too hard in that line, maybe we need to go back to think about resilience, commercial capability and supply chain managemen

in one example highlighted by the nao, a contract was awarded to the focus group organiser public firstviously worked for the cabinet 0ffice minister michael gove and alongside borisjohnson‘s then top adviser dominic cummings. yet the cabinet office failed to document any consideration of any potential conflicts of interest. by not keeping proper records, by not being transparent about when these contracts were awarded and what they were doing, it lays the government open to these accusations, whether they are true or not. and, certainly, this weird vip route through, where certain companies got a closer look, because they were recommended by mps, peers. i mean, this is not something mps wanted, and yet it has happened. and the question is, did anyone know about it and put people through that route, and a lot of us would not have known there was a fast track route to recommend certain companies. the nao also confirmed that where ministers‘ offices, mps or health chiefs recommended suppliers, their applications were fast tracked. public first said it was hired on a pay as you go arrangem

michael gove‘s office pointed out the nao found no evidence of ministers‘ involvement in procurementomed the nao‘s scrutiny and its recommendations for improvement. andy verity, bbc news. in the past hour, the department of health has released its daily coronavirus figures for the uk. a further 529 deaths have been reported. all those people passed away within 28—days of a positive coronavirus test. it takes the total number of deaths in the uk to 53,2711. there were also 19,606 further positive cases recorded. that number is slightly down on yesterday‘s figure. let‘s turn away from coronavirus and talk about the situation in the labour party. sir keir starmer says he won‘t allowjeremy corbyn to sit as a labour mp — despite him being allowed back into the labour party. the party‘s former leader had been suspended for saying that concerns about anti—semitism in the party had been overstated. there is continuing reaction to this. there‘s been reaction to this from len mcluskley, general secretary of unite union — our political correspondent is jessica parker. our political corresponden

i think first of all i would pick out, as the nao did, just the sheer scale of the operation means that to change at one time that inevitably there is going to be some difficulties for some individual people as they adjust to the new regime. he was also concerned at the number of businesses that still needed to get ready for the end of the transition period. and if there is to be an agreement of an eta and indeed a matching agreement then that we hope to see from the joint committee, there's always a smaller amount of time to be able to act on that. i know in 2018, 228 million tonnes of freight went across the uk borders, so an awful lot of hauliers. they are going to pay a key role in this. but they're going to be required to do an awful lot of paperwork. do you really think that a majority of the actual drivers themselves, at least initially, are yet well enough informed? the government has been running an information campaign. in addition, we issued our haulier handbook last week, 18th november. and it's actually online i believe today in polish and romanian, and there are other lang

here's stav da naos.day and some nice sunsets up than yesterday and some nice sunsets up and down the country between the clouds. as we head through tonight it turns wet and windy across the north and west of the uk and northern ireland and western scotla nd northern ireland and western scotland but elsewhere it should remain largely dry and fairly mild. the new area of low pressure will put in from the west and you will see the isobars squeezing in and it will turn windy but the south—east closer to the high pressure and

here's stav da naos. we start on a murky note but holes have been appearing in the cloud.spells as this picture shows in huddersfield in west yorkshire, the rest of the day looks like it will stay mainly dry with light wind, one or two showers and we will continue with the sunny spell, the reason for high pressure dominating the scene, but we are looking west to this brewing area of low pressure which will bring windy wet weather to northern ireland, western scotland as we head into tonight. i will show you the at is lite picture with the radar, you can see where the best of the sunshine has been, northern scotland, north east england, across the west midlands but thicker cloud elsewhere, that cloud will continue to thicken up across northern ireland and western scotland, as you move towards the end of day and there will be county council the odd shower round, in the south—east in response to the sunshine, temperatures lift here to a mild 15, maybe 16 degrees, elsewhere you can see 12 to 1a celsius, so another very mild day. as we head on through this evening and overnight

the spending watchdog the nao found more than £12 billion was spent buying ppe.ould've been saved. the shortages left staff feeling vulnerable, risking their lives. some lost them. this woman was a nurse. she died in april of coronavirus. she did have diabetes, but her family claims she lacked proper ppe. well, it's devastating particularly as front—line workers as the government, at the nhs that we trust in. it should just be natural to provide anything and everything that would help. it's really hard, you know, it's really hard losing someone like that. there you go. so, that's your masks and your boxes of gloves. the report also highlights how care companies in particular came close to running out of ppe. it was a little bit of sort of the wild west. we were being offered facemasks at 95p per thousand. at 95p per face mask. so, a 1500% increase in the price from the original purchase that we made. we were able to find these facemasks at better value we are being offered than we are being offered by government—sanctioned providers. in the summer, the bbc reveal

here's stav da naos. good afternoon.ticking with the mild fina can, very mild for the time of year across much of the country but it is quite breezy and rather cloudy. it is not completely dry, the weather front is bringing wet weather to western scotland, lots of ice about indicate that breeze, warm weather from the azores, hence it is so mild. you can just about make out the outline of the british isles, lots of cloud, heavy rainfall western scotland, light rain for parts of wales. north—east parts of scotland and north—east england have some shelter from the south—east breeze, so it will be very mild, perhaps 17 or 18 degrees. most are around the mid—teens even where we have cloud. this evening and overnight, very wet for western scotland, that when tra nsfers for western scotland, that when transfers into northern scotland and the northern ireland by the end of the northern ireland by the end of the night, we could see some rain for western parts of northern ireland, perhaps the very far south—west, we are holding on

let's bring in briin mabrian nao break it down. you were kind of handicapping it, maybe though it is kind of in the stock and also guidance for lowes maybe was a slight disappointment, so how are he reading what they report >> the words you just are said and when you were discussing take your g target, like what is next. if you look at this lowes report, it was amazing we want to be nit-picky, we say maybe there unit with a as much earnings growth. they did talk about higher spend just like home depot did yesterday. talking about a modest deceleration in sales growth in q4 again, a great report. i think the market is saying what is next and they are looking towards 2021, very much the potential for this coronavirus crisis to abate and how do consumers shop the home improvement stores over the next several quarters. >> and there is? criticism i guess that lowes is maybe a step behind the competition, home depot, in terms of online and getting exposure to digital channel. and i guess the question is, if you haven't capitalized on thi

the government said the nao's report recognised that nhs providers had been able to get what they neededal protective equipment left many feeling vulnerable. the report from the spending watchdog found in the early months of the pandemic, not enough ppe, huge increases in prices, and orders that failed to meet specifications. at the start of the pandemic, the government hadn't built the ppe stockpile up enough. there were only nine days' worth of goggles, seven days' worth of protective aprons, and not enough gowns to even last a day. so they were forced to buy as prices rocketed. the cost of body bags and gowns went up by more than 1000%. gloves went up by 500%. more than £12 billion was spent buying ppe. if it had been bought at the prices a year before, £10 billion could have been saved. your masks and your two boxes... dan archer runs an in—home care company in sheffield. the report highlights how care companies came close to running out of ppe. we support vulnerably placed adults in the community. i'm not a procurement expert, but we were finding ourselves in a position, with a litt

the government said the nao's report recognised that nhs providers had been able to get what they neededthis report show, in your opinion, that the government in reasonable circumstances should have actually had that supply is in place? that's a good question and a slightly difficult one to answer, because the national stockpile that was in place was designed for an influenza pandemic and do not occur coronavirus pandemic. —— and not a coronavirus pandemic. —— and not a coronavirus pandemic. —— and not a coronavirus pandemic. and one of the things that should have been on hand in the first wave was gowns and there were none in the national stockpile, so on one level, good news there was a national stockpile but what had to be adapted very quickly was getting the supplies that was needed. and then the supply and demand effect on pricing kicked m, and demand effect on pricing kicked in, iguess and demand effect on pricing kicked in, i guess a lot of people will look at that and look at, we're talking today about the imminent spending review, of course, where cuts and freezes may have to co