Fury as billions of useless PPE items go up in smoke

TAXPAYERS may have to cough up £2.7billion for poor-quality protective personal equipment bought at the height of the pandemic, MPs have been told.

- Sophie Wingate

“Significant failings” by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in handling contracts also led to a surplus of four billion unneeded items, some of which will be burned, according to a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The powerful group, which scrutinises government spending, criticised the DHSC for taking little action against potentially fraudulent suppliers, despite an estimated five per cent of PPE expenditure involving fraud.

As the DHSC failed to carry out sufficient checks before agreeing some contracts, it was paralysed from acting against suppliers who “may have made excessive profits whilst providing substandard PPE”, the PAC said.