A Covid inquiry led by Baroness Hallett concluded that personal protective equipment failures during the pandemic placed both NHS staff and patients at risk, while resulting in substantial financial waste. The inquiry determined that £9.9bn of the £14.9bn spent on PPE was wasted through procurement inefficiencies. The UK entered the pandemic with its emergency stockpile of masks, gowns and gloves in poor condition and proved unprepared for the global competition to secure supplies. Only a third of England’s masks were usable, while Scotland had no supplies of high-grade respiratory masks needed in hospitals.
The emergency stockpile, designed to last at least 15 weeks before replenishment, was depleted by the end of March 2020 as hospital demand increased. Care homes, GP surgeries and pharmacies were left to source their own PPE, which the inquiry characterized as a significant planning failure. Across the UK, the government wrote off £9.9bn in unused or expired PPE and £157m in unused healthcare equipment. Additional costs included £143m for ventilator designs that never reached production. Scotland wrote off approximately £8mn of healthcare equipment, Wales £18m in unused PPE, and Northern Ireland £43m of masks, gowns and gloves at risk of expiry.
The inquiry criticized the “VIP lane” established in April 2020 to prioritize PPE offers from those with political connections as a misguided policy that embedded unfairness into emergency procurement. However, Baroness Hallett stated she found no evidence of cronyism or corruption by ministers or officials in awarding final contracts. When testing kits and ventilators were included, total government spending between January 2020 and June 2022 exceeded £42bn.
The inquiry recommended a radical overhaul of emergency PPE procurement and distribution systems, development of a domestic industry strategy treating healthcare equipment as a national asset, and improvements to the pandemic stockpile held in Merseyside. The government stated it would carefully consider the recommendations and respond in due course.
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