TEN BILLION POUNDS OF TAXPAYERS MONEY WASTED

Baroness Hallett, Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, yesterday published her fifth report. It examines how the UK government and devolved administrations procured and distributed vital healthcare equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic and makes recommendations for the future. 

Module 5 Procurement’, the fifth of the Inquiry’s 10 investigations, highlights multiple failings, particularly at the outset of the pandemic.

The Chair concludes that systemic flaws, inadequate planning and other failures caused unnecessary delays in health and social care staff getting the personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and testing equipment they desperately needed. 

As the pandemic worsened, many doctors, nurses and care sector staff worked without adequate PPE or sufficient healthcare equipment such as ventilators. This left them unable to properly protect themselves, or those in their care, from dangerous infection.

Baroness Hallett finds that the UK entered the pandemic with its PPE stockpile in a perilous state – without enough vital supplies and with large quantities of expired equipment. There were no plans in place for emergency procurement or distribution. Additionally, the UK was “simply not ready to compete” in the global market race to secure vital healthcare equipment and ministers and officials were forced to improvise – establishing new procurement systems within days. 

The Chair concludes that the “waste of taxpayers’ money was vast”. This significantly damaged public trust and undermined the hard work of many procurement officials.  

The ‘High Priority Lane’, also known as the ‘VIP Lane’, was a misguided attempt at prioritisation that embedded unfairness in emergency procurement. Some suppliers received favourable treatment because they had connections to government, undermining public trust at a moment when it was needed most.

Although the Inquiry has not identified cronyism or corruption on the part of ministers and officials in final contracting decisions, the Chair concludes that the ‘High Priority’ Lane should not have been established and must not be repeated. 

Of the approximately £14.9 billion spent on PPE, nearly two thirds – almost £10 billion – was wasted. The total spent across the UK government and devolved administrations on PPE, ventilators and testing equipment between January 2020 and June 2022 exceeded £42 billion. 

In spite of these failings, today’s report cites the successes of pandemic procurement. Businesses, the public and the UK’s domestic life sciences and advanced manufacturing sectors rallied enthusiastically to help. The Army provided vital logistical expertise. The collaboration between the public and private sectors should serve as a model for how governments respond to future pandemics.

Overall, the Chair concludes that had ministers and officials been better equipped with appropriate plans, information and systems, procurement decisions would have been easier, fairer and far less costly – and equipment would have reached those who needed it faster.

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Baroness Heather Hallett, Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, said: “When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the world entered a desperate race to secure vital healthcare equipment and supplies. In the global battle to procure equipment and supplies, the UK was simply not ready to compete – the bodies responsible were caught off-guard, with inadequate and untested plans to increase emergency procurement and distribution operations rapidly.

“The waste of taxpayers’ money was vast. The public must be able to trust that their money is being spent with propriety, fairness and transparency. Public confidence – so important in an emergency – was undermined by the failures in procurement.

“The changes I recommend are an investment in the resilience and preparedness of the UK. They are a small price to pay to ensure that, next time, the public can be confident in the crucial spending decisions that will have to be made and that key healthcare equipment gets to those who need it at the right time. A better prepared emergency procurement system will reduce the cost of obtaining essential supplies and save lives.”

The report sets out 11 recommendations which – if implemented promptly, in full and in concert with recommendations in other Inquiry reports – form a blueprint for how the UK can better prepare for, and respond to, future pandemics.

A four-page brief summary of the report can be found on the Inquiry’s website and is available in a variety of languages and accessible formats.

The report addresses the award of contracts to PPE Medpro Ltd, which is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. The Module 5 report contains a chapter that sets out the Inquiry’s findings on evidence related to PPE Medpro – this chapter cannot be published on 14 July 2026 as it is covered by a Restriction Order granted by the Chair to ensure that current or future criminal investigations are not undermined.

Unless the Order is varied or revoked in the meantime, the chapter will be published once the Order has been lifted following the conclusion of any criminal proceedings.

In total, 48 witnesses gave oral evidence for the Module 5 investigation over 16 days of public hearings held in London in March 2025. The Inquiry heard from a wide range of witnesses including serving and former senior politicians, leading scientists, key medical professionals and civil servants.

Some of Baroness Hallett’s conclusions are as follows:

The UK was unprepared for emergency procurement at pandemic scale. The UK entered the pandemic with an inadequate stockpile of PPE and plans that had never been stress-tested. Officials and ministers were forced to improvise, establishing new emergency procurement and distribution systems within days.

The waste of public money was vast and could have been avoided. Of approximately £14.9 billion spent on PPE, nearly two thirds – almost £10 billion – was wasted. Better planning would have resulted in fairer, faster and less costly procurement decisions.

The ‘High Priority Lane’ was a misguided attempt at prioritisation that created unfairness and undermined public trust. Some suppliers received favourable treatment on account of their connections with the government. Although the Inquiry has not identified cronyism or corruption on the part of ministers or officials in final contracting decisions, the ‘High Priority Lane’ should not have been established and must not be repeated.

Public confidence was damaged by a lack of transparency. Priority was given to speed of procurement over openness with the public. Although understandable at the outset, this  lack of transparency, combined with the unfairness of the High Priority Lane, diminished public trust in emergency procurement.

The UK’s over-reliance on a single country for supplies left it dangerously exposed. The UK’s supplier base was too concentrated in China and domestic manufacturing capabilities had not been adequately considered in planning, leaving the country vulnerable at a critical moment.

The Chair considers that all Module 5 recommendations should be implemented in full and in a timely manner. The Inquiry will monitor the implementation of the recommendations during its lifetime. In summary, the Inquiry recommends:

• Radically overhauling supply chain resilience and emergency procurement and distribution systems, establishing clear and tested plans before the next pandemic.
• Creating an emergency international trade and domestic industrial strategy, treating key healthcare equipment as a strategic national asset.
• Setting specific objectives for international trade and domestic industry during a pandemic, encouraging investment, research and development in advanced manufacturing of healthcare equipment.
• Digitalising procurement and distribution systems within three years, enabling the real-time collection, sharing and analysis of data across the UK government and devolved administrations.
• Improving the composition and management of the pandemic stockpile to reflect the full range of pandemic risks and the diversity of the health and social care workforce.
• Establishing a training programme for procurement officials, ensuring sufficient numbers of skilled staff are ready for deployment in an emergency.
• Improving transparency, governance and accountability in emergency procurement, so that the public can be confident that money is being spent with propriety and fairness.

A full list of the Inquiry’s recommendations can be found in the full report.