PPE failures left NHS staff poorly protected and wasted £10bn, Covid inquiry finds

NHS and other healthcare staff were put at risk in the pandemic because of a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), the Covid inquiry has said.

The fifth report from the inquiry found that of the £14.9bn spent by the UK and devolved governments on PPE, nearly two thirds – almost £10bn – was wasted.

The UK entered the pandemic with its stockpile of masks, gowns and gloves in a "perilous state" with the country "simply not ready to compete" in the global race to get new supplies.

Healthcare staff were unable to properly protect themselves, or those in their care, from dangerous infections, the inquiry concluded.

The inquiry's chair, Baroness Hallett, described the waste of taxpayers' money as "vast" and said an overreliance on China to manufacture equipment left the UK "dangerously overexposed".

When the cost of home testing kits and other equipment, such as ventilators, was included, the total amount spent by the government between January 2020 and June 2022 exceeded £42bn, the inquiry found.

The UK's emergency stockpile of PPE, meant to last at least 15 weeks before being replenished, was running out by the end of March 2020 as demand from hospitals soared.

What is the UK Covid inquiry and how does it work?

Covid inquiry turns to PPE deals and the 'VIP lane'

Covid inquiry rejects last-minute bid from Michelle Mone

Only a third of the masks in England's pandemic stockpile were usable, the inquiry found, while Scotland had no supplies of high-grade respiratory masks used in hospitals.

At the time, care homes, GP surgeries and pharmacies were all expected to source their own PPE, something the report described as a "major failure in planning".

Government contingency plans had "never been stress tested" and officials and ministers were "forced to improvise, establishing new emergency procurement and distribution systems within days".

"Better planning would have resulted in fairer, faster and less costly procurement decisions," the report concluded.

Public trust was "significantly damaged" by failures to provide PPE and other equipment and the hard work of many officials was undermined, added Baroness Hallett.

In England, a so-called "VIP lane" – officially known as the high priority lane – was set up in the pandemic to award government PPE contracts.

Introduced in April 2020, the idea was to treat offers to supply PPE with greater urgency if they came with a recommendation from ministers, MPs, members of the House of Lords, or other senior officials.

At the time, the government said there was a "desperate need" to protect health and social care staff, and argued swift action was required to secure healthcare equipment.

The inquiry criticised that policy as a "misguided attempt at prioritisation" that "embedded unfairness in emergency procurement".

Some suppliers received favourable treatment because they had connections to the then Conservative government which "undermined trust at a moment when it needed it most".

"The high priority lane should not have been established and must not be repeated," the report concluded.

But Baroness Hallett said she had not identified cronyism or corruption on the part of ministers and officials when PPE contracts were finally awarded.

In February 2025, the inquiry spent a day taking evidence about PPE Medpro, the firm linked to the businessman Doug Barrowman and his wife Baroness Michelle Mone.

Both Barrowman and Mone have denied any wrongdoing in relation to those contracts that were worth more than £200m.

Baroness Hallett ordered that testimony from senior government officials had to be heard behind closed doors so as not to prejudice an ongoing criminal investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

A section of the inquiry's findings related to PPE Medpro was also removed from the final report and will only be published "following the conclusion of any criminal proceedings".

No criminal charges have been brought to date with the NCA saying that its "ongoing investigation remains a priority for the agency".

In total, 48 witnesses gave oral evidence for this part of the inquiry in February and March 2025, including former health secretary Matt Hancock and cabinet minister Michael Gove.

The recommendations made include:

a "radical overhaul" of the emergency system for buying PPE and distributing it before the next pandemic

drawing up a "domestic industry strategy" which treats key healthcare equipment as a strategic national asset"

improving the state of the pandemic stockpile which is held in a giant warehouse in Merseyside