PPE costs more at a time of high demand, does it?

We note that the Good Law Project is having another tilt at the government:

PPE was on average 80% more expensive when the government bought it from firms referred through a special “VIP lane” by Conservative ministers, MPs and officials, new information has revealed.

The Good Law Project, which has long been investigating PPE deals during the Covid pandemic, said internal government documents showed that the unit price paid for items under VIP lane contracts was up to four times higher than average.

We agree, this could be possible. The idea that special contracting processes lead to mates getting great deals is not alien to us at all.

But there’s another possibility here as well. Think back - demand for PPE was through the roof as the pandemic hit the whole world at the same time. Supply was constrained, obviously enough. So, and therefore, prices rise. This is normal enough.

We also have that special lane. For those who can actually deliver, to spec (clearly, not all was to spec but that’s another matter). In a time of global shortage of supply when measured against demand. So, those supplies of PPE that come through this special lane, they’re going to be higher priced or not?

As we say, we don’t insist that the second be true, nor that the first not be. But we would insist that that second be explored, be thought about, the GLP claims adjusted for that somewhere between possibility and likelihood.

They have, haven’t they. Haven’t they? Or are they just claiming that deliveries during a supply shortage were more expensive?