An estimated £1.4bn-worth of non-public protecting gear (PPE) purchased by the federal government in a single deal has been destroyed or written off, in keeping with figures described because the worst instance of waste within the Covid pandemic.
The figures obtained by the BBC underneath freedom of knowledge legal guidelines confirmed that 1.57bn objects from the NHS provider Full Assist Healthcare won’t ever be used.
They had been a part of a £1.78bn deal the agency struck with the federal government to provide masks, aprons, eye protectors and respirators in April 2020 on the peak of the pandemic. It was the federal government’s largest PPE order through the pandemic, accounting for 13% of the federal government’s spend.
Out of a complete of two.02bn objects offered by Full Assist Healthcare within the deal, solely 232m had been despatched to the NHS or different care settings, the figures confirmed. About 749m objects have already been destroyed and an additional 825m of extra inventory is being thought of for disposal or recycling, the disclosure revealed.
The shadow well being secretary, Wes Streeting, described the deal as a “staggering waste”.
He stated: “We all know that billions of kilos had been wasted through the pandemic on corruption and incompetence by the Conservatives, however that is the worst instance I’ve ever seen.
“£1.4bn on one contract, paying for PPE that was by no means used, and Rishi Sunak’s fingerprints are throughout it. That’s cash that would have been used to pay the salaries of 37,000 NHS nurses.”
Daisy Cooper, the deputy chief of the Liberal Democrats, stated it was “colossal misuse of public funds”.
She added: “That is simply the most recent in a sequence of damning revelations on the Conservatives’ file of mishandling Covid contracts.
“As an alternative of this troubling sample of waste, shortcuts and lack of oversight, the general public deserve transparency on the true price of those failures.”
The well being secretary, Victoria Atkins, stated the £1.4bn determine was “not accepted” however her division has not offered another estimate.
She defended the federal government’s procurement of PPE through the pandemic as “the appropriate factor to do”. Challenged on the disclosure throughout a press convention on Tuesday, she stated: “The entire nation needed us to get the PPE that our frontline employees wanted each in healthcare and in social care, and we managed to obtain billions of items of PPE gear.”
In January, the Division of Well being and Social Care (DHSC) revealed that of the £13.6bn spent on PPE through the pandemic, objects value £9.9bn had been written off as faulty or unusable.
There isn’t any suggestion that Full Assist Healthcare, or its co-directors, Sarah and Richard Stoute, have carried out something improper.
The couple’s legal professionals advised the BBC: “Full Assist Healthcare inventory arrived shortly by summer time 2020, a lot sooner than most and in bigger portions. It had both a two- or three-year shelf life. This implies the PPE merchandise usually tend to have handed their use-by date.”
The couple’s enterprise is predicated offshore in Jersey, “solely to take care of privateness”, the legal professionals advised the BBC.
The couple and their firm stay registered within the UK for tax.
A DHSC spokesperson stated: “We don’t recognise the £1.4bn quoted.
“Our place on PPE inventory is ready out within the division’s annual accounts as audited by the Nationwide Audit Workplace. PPE was secured on the peak of the pandemic, competing in an overheated international market the place demand massively outstripped provide.
“Practically half of all of the remaining inventory was offered, recycled, or donated by the division. According to our discount of storage and disposal technique unused objects might be became vitality from waste which can see the division recoup additional prices.”
