Javid tells NHS to stop using Gazprom-supplied energy
Sajid Javid has said the NHS in England must stop using energy supplied by the Russian-owned firm Gazprom.
A senior government source told the PA Media news agency that the health secretary has been in talks with NHS England (NHSE) over ending the contracts, which are reported by Politico to have been worth £16m in 2021. More than a dozen NHS trusts are thought to be supplied by Gazprom, alongside several local councils.
The source told PA Media: “Sajid has spoken with NHSE and been clear that trusts need to stop using Gazprom as a supplier. He has also requested a wider review of any Russian role in supply chains across the health service.”
It comes after Lord Simon Stevens, former head of NHS England, told the House of Lords that “decarbonising the health sector will take pound notes out of the hands of dictatorial regimes that are engaged in acts of aggression”.
The former health secretary Jeremy Hunt also tweeted: “It’s clearly unsustainable for a humanitarian organisation like the NHS to have any commercial links whatsoever with [Vladimir] Putin’s murderous regime.”
Total public sector spend in the UK with Gazprom between 2016 and 2021 was £107m, according to public procurement data providers Tussell.
The organisation said its analysis showed that of this figure, £77m came from the NHS and £29m from local authorities.
It said the top five buyers from Gazprom were all NHS bodies, with Newcastle NHS trust topping the list at a spend of £15m, and calculated that Suffolk and Manchester were the local authorities most reliant on Gazprom.
Newcastle trust confirmed they changed gas suppliers in April 2021.
A number of councils have said they want to end contracts with Gazprom and are considering their links to other Russian
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