MPs question government plans to burn £4bn of PPE ‘to generate power’

The Public Accounts Committee says the government has done little to ‘put its house in order’ after wasting ‘huge amounts’ of public money, reports Samuel Lovett

(APA/AFP/Getty)

MPs have raised concern over the financial and environmental costs of a plan to burn £4bn of unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) to generate power.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) lost 75 per cent of the £12bn it spent on PPE in the first year of the pandemic to inflated prices and faulty kit.

This included £4bn worth which could not be used because it did not meet NHS standards.

DHSC has said that some 3.9 billion pieces of wasted PPE will be either recycled, sent abroad, or burned “to provide power and energy”.

It currently costs the government around £1.7m per week to store the unusable PPE.

PAC chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier said the DHSC has done little to “put its house in order” after wasting “huge amounts” of public money.

The Labour MP said: “The story of PPE purchasing is perhaps the most shameful episode in the UK government response to the pandemic.

“At the start of the pandemic health service and social care staff were left to risk their own and their families' lives due to the lack of basic PPE.

“In a desperate bid to catch up, the government splurged huge amounts of money, paying obscenely inflated prices and payments to middlemen in a chaotic rush, during which they chucked out even the most cursory due diligence.

“This has left us with massive public contracts now under investigation by the National Crime Agency or in dispute because of allegations of modern slavery in the supply chain.”

MPs from the committee also raised concerns about “inappropriate”, unauthorised payoffs made by health bodies to staff, warning that more of these are likely to happen amid the large-scale restructuring of the NHS.

During the pandemic, three clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) paid special severance payments without the required approval from the Treasury, the committee said.

“The DHSC singularly failed to manage this crisis, despite years of clear and known risk of a pandemic, and the challenges facing it now are vast, from getting the NHS back on its feet to preparing for the next major crisis,” Dame Meg said.

“There are, frankly, too few signs that it is putting its house in order or knows how to.”

Chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, said the burning of PPE is a reminder that the DHSC's approach to procurement may also have cost nurses' lives.

She said: “Our members will find this galling.

“It is a painful reminder of the worst of the pandemic – inadequate or wasteful PPE.

“Sending billions of pounds up in smoke when NHS and care services are struggling will be hard for them to comprehend.

“If this money had been used more wisely and decent quality PPE bought in the first place, then nurses' lives might have been saved.

“It will be critical, if we are to truly learn the lessons, for the forthcoming public inquiry to pin down causes and to say clearly where mistakes were made so they are never repeated.”