ROBERT Buckland has been grilled over cabinet colleague Matt Hancock's pandemic contracts. 

Last week, the health secretary was found to have acted unlawfully when his department did not reveal contract details it had signed during the Covid crisis. 

He was judged to have "breached his legal obligation" by not publishing the details within 30 days of them being signed.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, South Swindon MP and justice secretary Mr Buckland was quizzed by Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard on the ruling and subsequent lack of apology from the Mr Hancock. 

He said: "Every day and every month there are cases brought against the government about whether or not it has acted lawfully. 

"And there are times when the court says yes the government has, and there are plenty of times when it says no.

"The important thing is that the government abides by the ruling of the courts and where an appeal is not being sought then the government should get on with what the judge has ruled."

Shephard countered Mr Buckland, asking whether it wouldn't be better for the government to follow the law in the first place rather than saying 'it's okay if no one spots this we can say sorry'. 

Mr Buckland replied: "It was a failure to publish documentation about the process within the due time and that's wrong. 

"The judge says it was wrong and when you read the judgement, the department itself admitted it should have published those documents within the due time.

"The lesson has to be learnt and improvements have to be made. 

"It's not a question of people trying to get away with it, I can assure people government lawyers advise ministers every day about the parameters which they should act and ministers should follow that."