[1andrew1]

The failed garden bridge project was a farce. This was a tragedy.

COVID inquiry latest: Boris Johnson's government wasted 'vast' sums on PPE, inquiry finds
The UK government wasted nearly two-thirds of the money it spent on protective equipment - almost £10bn - and had "perilous" stockpiles that were unprepared for the pandemic, the COVID-19 inquiry has found.

Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett said the waste of taxpayers' money during the outbreak was "vast" as she published her latest report from module 5 of the inquiry today.

Inadequate planning by ministers and officials caused unnecessary delays in providing PPE and other vital healthcare equipment, such as ventilators, to doctors and nurses.

This meant they worked without the equipment and were unable to properly protect themselves or patients from the disease, module five of the inquiry has concluded.

With no plans in place for emergency procurement or distribution, the UK was "not ready to compete" in the global market race to secure that healthcare equipment.

How much money was wasted?

The total spent across the UK government and devolved administrations on PPE, ventilators and testing equipment was more than £42bn between January 2020 and June 2022.

Approximately £14.9bn and £700m were spent on PPE and ventilators, respectively, but there were risks of waste caused by overbuying and the purchase of "substandard equipment", the report found.

'Favourable treatment' for some suppliers criticised

The report found the government's attempt to fast-track supply chains for COVID-19 medical equipment - known as the 'High Priority Lane' - was "misguided" and created unfairness in emergency procurement.

Some suppliers "received favourable treatment because they had connections to government", the report found - but no cronyism or corruption was identified by the inquiry.

The report doesn't feature any evidence on PPE firm Medpro - which is linked to Conservative peer Baroness Michelle Mone via her husband, Doug Barrowman - due to ongoing investigations into that company. Both deny any wrongdoing.

UK manufacturing of PPE could have started six weeks earlier, report finds

One of the key conclusions from today's report was that the UK was over-reliant on China for sourcing its PPE (see 12:00 post).

The report explains domestic production of PPE eventually became an "unexcepted success" - its capacity as a percentage of the country's demand was 30% in July 2020, and grew rapidly to 70% by December 2020.

But this was only reached "some time" after the height of the procurement crisis at the pandemic's outset, the report says.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-inq...ators-13561968