UK Covid Inquiry: Government Had Inadequate PPE Stockpile, Spent £14.9bn on Supplies

The UK's fifth Covid inquiry report concluded that planning failures left doctors and nurses without adequate personal protective equipment during the pandemic. The country entered the crisis with its stockpile of masks, gowns and gloves in a perilous state and was unprepared to secure new supplies on global markets.

The government spent £14.9bn on PPE, of which nearly two thirds, almost £10bn, was wasted.

Baroness Hallett, the inquiry chair, described the waste of taxpayers' money as vast and noted that overreliance on China left the UK dangerously overexposed. When spending on home testing kits, ventilators and other equipment was included, total outlays between January 2020 and June 2022 exceeded £42bn.

The emergency stockpile, intended to last at least 15 weeks, was running out by the end of March 2020 as hospital demand rose sharply.

Care homes, GP surgeries and pharmacies were required to source their own PPE, a requirement the report called a major failure in planning. Government contingency plans had never been stress tested, forcing officials and ministers to improvise new procurement and distribution systems within days. In England a high priority lane for PPE contracts was introduced in April 2020.

The inquiry criticised the lane as a misguided attempt at prioritisation that embedded unfairness, with some suppliers receiving favourable treatment because of connections to the then Conservative government. Baroness Hallett said she had not identified cronyism or corruption by ministers or officials.

The report examined contracts worth more than £200m awarded to PPE Medpro, the firm linked to Doug Barrowman and Baroness Michelle Mone.