Credit;PA
About £1.4 billion worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been destroyed or written off in what is understood to be one of the most wasteful government deals of the pandemic.
Figures obtained by the BBC reveal that at least 1.57 billion items of PPE provided by Full Support Healthcare, an NHS supplier based in Northamptonshire, will never be used, despite being manufactured to the proper standard.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), which was responsible for purchasing and delivering Covid PPE, declined to provide a statement due to the pre-election period.
The Labour Party has described the contract as a “staggering waste,” while the Liberal Democrats labelled it a “colossal misuse of public funds.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said, “The money lost could have been used to pay the salaries of 37,000 nurses. This is the worst example of waste I have ever seen – £1.4 billion on one contract, paying for PPE that was never used. It is staggering waste, and we need a full and frank account of how so much public money was thrown down the toilet.”
Full Support Healthcare agreed to a £1.78 billion deal in April 2020 to deliver face masks, respirators, eye protection, and aprons. This was the largest Covid PPE order from a single supplier, accounting for 13 per cent of the government’s total spend. Before the pandemic, the company had 25 employees and annual profits of £800,000.
In a turn of events, Full Support Healthcare’s co-directors, Sarah and Richard Stoute, relocated their business offshore to Jersey for privacy reasons. Despite this, they and the company continue to pay all UK tax and maintain there was no improper conduct.
The BBC’s investigation revealed that of the 2.02 billion items of PPE provided by Full Support, only 232 million items have been dispatched to the NHS or other care settings. A staggering 749 million items have been burned or destroyed, “including by energy from waste,” and a further 825 million are classified as excess stock, with “disposal and recycling as possible outcomes.”
This means about £1.4 billion worth of Full Support Healthcare’s PPE will not be used. Previously, the government estimated that £85 million worth of PPE secured under the contract would not be used, which is approximately 6 per cent of the true total. Additionally, at least £100 million of public money has been spent on storing and incinerating the excess stock.
The government has defended its actions, stating, “We acted swiftly to procure PPE at the height of the pandemic, competing in an overheated global market where demand massively outstripped supply.”
Related: Conservative Party using ’emergency alerts’ to send ads to voters
