In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, from March 2020 the British government had to rapidly place contracts and recruit a number of individuals, with shortages of personal protective equipment being a particular political issue for the second Johnson ministry. This led to a number of contracts being awarded without a competitive tendering process, and friends of political figures and people who had made political donations being "fast-tracked" into contracts. This led to accusations of cronyism or a "chumocracy", with Transparency International UK finding that a fifth of contracts "raised red flags for possible corruption".