UK wasted £10bn on ineffective PPE amid Covid inquiry criticism

The UK wasted £9.9 billion on personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, much of which was either unused or expired, according to the final report from the COVID-19 Inquiry. The report, published today, highlights systemic failures in planning, procurement, and distribution that left healthcare workers and patients at risk.

Chair of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett, criticized the government’s handling of PPE procurement, describing the £9.9 billion waste as “vast” and representing two-thirds of the £14.9 billion spent on PPE between January 2020 and June 2022. When including home testing kits and other medical equipment, the total expenditure exceeded £42 billion.

The report found that the UK’s emergency PPE stockpile was critically underprepared at the start of the pandemic. By the end of March 2020, supplies were nearly exhausted due to surging demand. Only a third of the masks in England’s stockpile were usable, while Scotland had no high-grade respiratory masks available. Care homes, GP surgeries, and pharmacies were left to source their own PPE, a failure the report describes as a “major planning oversight.”

The inquiry also scrutinized the government’s controversial “VIP lane,” an emergency procurement process that prioritized offers from politically connected suppliers. While Baroness Hallett found no evidence of outright corruption, she condemned the policy as a “misguided attempt at prioritization” that undermined public trust. “The high priority lane should not have been established and must not be repeated,” she stated.

In addition to PPE waste, the government incurred £157 million in costs for unused healthcare equipment and £143 million for failed ventilator designs. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland also reported significant losses, with £8 million, £18 million, and £43 million worth of equipment, respectively, at risk of expiry.

The inquiry concluded that while it was preferable to over-purchase PPE than risk shortages, better planning could have reduced waste and improved fairness in procurement. “Better planning would have resulted in fairer, faster, and less costly decisions,” the report noted.

The government’s emergency response systems were found to have been insufficiently tested prior to the pandemic. Officials were forced to rapidly establish new procurement and distribution networks, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies.

In a related development, the inquiry heard evidence in February 2025 regarding PPE Medpro, a company awarded contracts worth over £200 million linked to businessman Doug Barrowman and his wife, Baroness Michelle Mone. Both have denied wrongdoing, and a section of the report on this matter was withheld pending the conclusion of a National Crime Agency investigation.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson acknowledged the report’s findings as “difficult reading” and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to learning from the pandemic to better prepare for future emergencies. The government stated it would carefully consider the inquiry’s recommendations before responding formally.

Among the key recommendations are a “radical overhaul” of emergency PPE procurement systems, the development of a domestic industry strategy to treat critical healthcare equipment as a strategic asset, and improvements to the national stockpile, currently stored in a warehouse in Merseyside.