PPE Medpro owes HMRC 39m as administration reveals 188m liabilities

Documents filed by the administrators of PPE Medpro on Tuesday show the firm owes 39 million pounds in unpaid tax to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, adding to a 148 million-pound judgment the company faces after a court found it supplied unusable personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The filings, lodged at Companies House, come after PPE Medpro was placed into administration on September 30, the day before the high court judgment was published.

The court, in a judgment by Mrs Justice Cockerill, concluded that PPE Medpro had breached its contract with the Department of Health and Social Care to supply 25 million sterile surgical gowns and ordered the company to repay the 122 million pounds it received. With interest imposed from late 2020 through the judgment, the DHSC’s claim in the administrators’ statement is listed at 148 million. The DHSC has said further interest is accruing at an annual rate of 8 percent.

The administrators, Forvis Mazars, put the company’s total liabilities at 188 million pounds. The breakdown in their preliminary statement dated October 30 lists the DHSC claim of 148 million, the 39 million tax demand by HMRC, about 207,000 owed...