Russian-owned energy firm supplies at least 11 NHS trusts

We looked at NHS organisations’ published data on their payments of £25,000 or above, which shows 11 trusts paid either Gazprom Marketing & Trading Retail Limited or Gazprom Retail Limited during the 2021-22 financial year. Most of them are based in the North West.

The data also shows 17 trusts paid the Gazprom companies during the 2020-21 financial year a total between them of £17.1m. The dataset also shows 12 trusts paid the companies a total of £16.7m during the 2019-20 financial year.

The 11 trusts identified for the 2021-22 financial year are:

However, because the analysis relies on trusts to publish their data, the actual number of NHS organisations supplied by Gazprom – and the actual amount paid to the company by NHS organisations – could be higher.

HSJ approached several of the trusts and the Department of Health and Social Care. 

A Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals FT spokesperson said the trust had ended its contract with Gazprom in April 2021. However, the company appears in the trust’s spend data for October 2021, which the spokesperson said related to final payments for gas used before the contract ended.

Nobody else has commented. It is unclear if the trusts made the purchases directly or via a national procurement system.

Many trusts buy their energy through the Crown Commercial Service’s specialist energy buying team, which tries to harness the buying power of the public sector to get better rates. The CCS bulk buys electricity and natural gas on the open wholesale market.

It is thought the NHS spends well over £100m a year on gas.

Gazprom entered the UK gas market in 2006, when it purchased small supplier Pennine. At the time, it targeted NHS trusts as customers with cheap deals, in a move which was criticised by some Conservative MPs.

In 2007, Richard Bacon, Conservative MP for South Norfolk and then a member of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “Russia has proved it is not a reliable supplier of gas. When you have sick patients relying on its energy at their bedside, can you really trust Vladimir Putin to be their major supplier?”

The company now accounts for about a fifth of the UK’s gas supply for businesses market. However, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week, there are questions about its standing in the UK and what that would mean for the organisations it supplies.

Boris Johnson announced in the Commons on Wednesday that sanctions would be imposed on five Russian banks, plus three very high net worth individuals. Further sanctions were then placed on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday. However, there are currently no UK sanctions imposed on Gazprom itself. 

Update: This story was updated at 15:50 on 1 March to include Newcastle’s response and updated again at 15:00 on 11 March to include further response from the trust.