Covid PPE frenzy squandered almost £10billion of taxpayers' money, damning inquiry finds

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The fifth report from Baroness Hallett said the dedicated route for offers referred to officials by ministers, was a ‘misguided attempt at prioritisation that created unfairness and undermined public trust’.

A total of £14.9 billion was spent on personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, but the report says almost two-thirds of that - nearly £10 billion - was wasted.

It revealed that contracts awarded through the High Priority Lane tended to be more expensive than those that had gone through the standard process.

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More than half of contracts issued through the referral lane were also said to have had performance issues, compared to 39 per cent of deals signed that didn’t come through that route.

Baroness Hallett, the Covid Inquiry chair, said: "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."

Last year, PPE firm Medpro was ordered to repay £148 million to the government after the High Court found it had breached a contract to supply millions of surgical gowns during the pandemic.

The firm, linked to Conservative peer Baroness Michelle Mone through her husband Doug Barrowman, has been the subject of a criminal investigation by the National Crime Agency since 2021.

The Covid Inquiry did take evidence into the supply of medical equipment by PPE Medpro as part of the procurement module; it won’t release the details of it until after the investigation has concluded.

Both Lady Mone and Doug Barrowman have denied any wrongdoing.

The VIP lane for awarding contracts at the start of the pandemic was set up as a “reaction” to requests from senior officials and government ministers asking for updates on offers they had referred into the system, the inquiry heard.

“Ministers and senior officials would ask officials for reassurance that the people they’d referred were being properly processed,” the fifth report says. “This increased the workload on an already overworked procurement team.”

“It was not uncommon for suppliers to threaten officials that they would escalate their grievances to the press or ministers, the report goes on to say, adding, “The common thread was that these offers were “potentially politically sensitive” and were from people who would 'require greater handling'.”

Although the Covid Inquiry says it did not find any evidence of cronyism or corruption on the part of ministers or officials, it warned that the process lacked transparency and public confidence was damaged at a time when it was needed most.

Baroness Hallett has also warned that depleted stockpiles of healthcare equipment are continuing to pose an issue for any future pandemic.

The inquiry said that in December 2024, June 2025 and September 2025, stockpiles in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were short and that lengthy lead times in securing new PPE continue to be accepted as the norm.

11 recommendations have been made to the government, including to improve the management and inspection of pandemic stockpiles, to train officials in how to better procure equipment in emergencies and to improve transparency and governance, to ensure fairness in the process.