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REVEALED: Ministers ignored Government recruitment process to appoint Gina Coladangelo

21st July 2021

Documents uncovered by Good Law Project suggest Ministers at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) abandoned their own recruitment procedures to directly appoint Gina Coladangelo as a non-executive director. We have unearthed a DHSC job advertisement posted in August 2020 seeking “expressions of interest for four non-executive directors”. The deadline for the application was 11 September 2020. 

However, Coladangelo’s contract confirms she commenced her role as a non-executive director on 1 September 2020 – 10 days before the closing date for other applicants to apply for the same role.  

Both the job ad uncovered by Good Law Project and Gina Coladangelo’s contract released to the Metro contain the same £15,000 per annum salary.

This raises serious concerns that Matt Hancock may have bypassed his own department’s recruitment process to fast-track the appointment of Gina Coladangelo.

According to the published list of ‘Central Government Non-Executive board members’ the DHSC had four Non-Execs as at 22 April 2021: Kate Lampard, Gery Murphy, Doug Gurr and, of course, Gina Coladangelo.

This isn’t the first time the Government has handed close allies key roles during the pandemic. Good Law Project’s ongoing ‘Jobs for the Boys’ case is challenging the appointments of Dido Harding and Mike Coupe. Harding, a conservative Peer and wife of a Conservative MP, was first appointed as Head of Test and Trace, and later as Head of the National Institute for Health Protection. We believe the evidence demonstrates that the closed recruitment processes were unlawful.

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