Nurses were forced to wear bin bags and shower caps because the UK had run out of gowns and masks. This is one of the most damning findings of the latest module from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which revealed that nearly £10bn of public money was wasted on personal protective equipment (PPE) that was never used or went out of date.
At the heart of the problem was a stockpile that was not fit for purpose. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the UK’s emergency stockpile of PPE – meant to last at least 15 weeks before being replenished – was already running out. In England, only a third of the masks in the pandemic stockpile were usable. Scotland had no supplies of high-grade respiratory masks used in hospitals. And care homes, GP surgeries and pharmacies were expected to source their own PPE – a “major failure in planning”, according to inquiry chair Baroness Hallett.
“The UK wasted £10bn on PPE during Covid, leaving NHS staff unprotected. This explains why.”
The government then spent £14.9bn on PPE in a desperate global scramble to secure supplies. Of that, £9.9bn – two-thirds – was written off as waste. This included masks, gowns and gloves that were never used or expired. On top of that, £157m was written off for unused healthcare equipment, £143m for the “ventilator challenge” designs that never made it into production, and smaller sums in Scotland (£8m), Wales (£18m) and Northern Ireland (£43m of PPE at risk of expiry). The total government spend on PPE, testing kits and ventilators between January 2020 and June 2022 exceeded £42bn.
Baroness Hallett also criticised the controversial “VIP lane” that prioritised PPE offers from suppliers with political connections. She described it as a “misguided policy” that should not be repeated, though she said there was “no evidence of cronyism or corruption” by ministers or officials in awarding final contracts. One VIP lane deal with PPE Medpro, a firm linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone, was not mentioned in the report due to ongoing legal proceedings.
For UK readers, the practical impact is stark: frontline healthcare staff were unable to properly protect themselves or their patients because of inadequate PPE. The Royal College of Nursing said the fact staff were forced to hastily repurpose ordinary household items should be “marks of shame” for successive governments. The waste of £9.9bn also represents a significant financial burden on taxpayers, money that could have been spent on other public services. The inquiry noted that while it was better to have too much PPE than too little in a pandemic, “better planning would have resulted in fairer, faster and less costly procurement decisions”.
Q: How much PPE did the UK waste? The UK wrote off £9.9bn worth of PPE that was unused or out of date, out of a total spend of £14.9bn on PPE. When including other equipment like ventilators and testing kits, total government spending exceeded £42bn.
Q: What was the VIP lane for PPE? The VIP lane was a policy that fast-tracked PPE offers from suppliers with political connections to the Conservative government. Baroness Hallett called it “misguided” and said it led to the government paying more for kit than from normal suppliers.
Q: Why did the UK run out of PPE? The UK entered the pandemic with its emergency stockpile in a perilous state. England’s stockpile had only a third of usable masks, Scotland lacked high-grade respiratory masks, and contingency plans had never been stress-tested. The stockpile was meant to last 15 weeks but was running out by the end of March 2020.
What happens next? The inquiry’s findings will inform future pandemic preparedness. The report itself does not set out specific penalties, but its recommendations are expected to shape government procurement policies. Meanwhile, legal proceedings continue regarding some VIP lane contracts, such as the one linked to Michelle Mone. The government has said it accepts the inquiry’s conclusions and will work to ensure lessons are learned.
