UK Covid inquiry: £9.9bn wasted on PPE in 'catastrophic failure' of planning as staff wore bin bags

The scale of the waste

The UK and devolved governments wasted almost £10 billion on personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the fifth report of the official UK Covid inquiry published on 14 July 2026. Chair Baroness Heather Hallett found that £9.9bn, roughly two-thirds of the £14.9bn total spent on masks, gloves, gowns and other equipment, was lost to waste. In Scotland alone, approximately £8.35 million of healthcare equipment including testing kits and PPE was written off between 2020 and 2023. The report described the country's pre-pandemic stockpile as being in a 'perilous state', with only a third of masks in England's stockpile usable and Scotland holding no supplies of top-level FFP3 masks needed by healthcare professionals. Large quantities of equipment had expired before the crisis began.

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.

How the VIP lane operated

The inquiry examined the 'VIP lane' system introduced in England in April 2020, which prioritised PPE offers referred by ministers, MPs, Lords and senior officials. Hallett branded the process a 'misguided attempt at prioritisation' that 'embedded unfairness in emergency procurement'. Of the 15,194 suppliers who offered PPE through the standard route, just 160 won contracts. By contrast, 54 of the 430 suppliers entering the VIP lane were awarded contracts, meaning VIP-referred firms were 13 times more likely to secure government business. Yet proportionally more VIP lane contracts later had performance issues, ranging from incorrect technical specifications to delivery failures. Of the 32 people who referred successful offers, 15 had Conservative Party connections and none came from other parties. The report found no evidence of cronyism or corruption by ministers, but stated the system was inherently biased and drastically increased the risk of abuse.

Frontline consequences

Staff in Scotland and across the UK resorted to wearing bin bags and shower caps as makeshift protection, the Royal College of Nursing stated, calling this a 'mark of shame' for successive governments. The report found that between February and March 2020, devolved administrations relied on England for FFP3 masks because their own stocks had expired, and even those were approaching the end of their shelf life. NHS National Services Scotland reported stockpiles were very low by April 2020. Hallett said that when governments failed to procure required equipment, 'key workers, including health and social care workers, could not be properly protected; their lives and the lives of those for whom they care were put at risk'.

Today's report lays bare a catastrophic failure of preparedness that cost lives, wasted billions and allowed a privileged few to profit from a national emergency.

The families' response

Naomi Fulop of the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group, speaking at the Kia Oval cricket stadium, linked the findings to her mother Christina Fulop's death in January 2021. Care workers attending her mother wore one thin medical mask for entire eight-hour shifts, and Fulop believes that is how her mother contracted the virus. Deborah Dunlop, another member of the 7,000-strong campaigning group, told The Guardian her mother Sylvia Griffiths died in a Sunderland care home in April 2020 where staff also lacked adequate PPE. The inquiry report was described by the families group as a vindication, though some questioned the conclusion that no corruption had occurred in the VIP lane.

The nurse who looked after my mum, who was a wonderful Nigerian man, a very stoic gentleman, was with her when she passed away. He was absolutely bereft because he couldn't believe the number of residents who were dying.

Political reaction and the PPE Medpro case

Former prime minister Boris Johnson rejected the inquiry's criticism, saying through PA news agency that he needed 'no instruction from an inquiry' about his government's pandemic handling and that he was 'very proud' of the PPE procurement effort. The Polish daily Rzeczpospolita highlighted the case of PPE Medpro, a newly formed company linked to Conservative peer Michelle Mone, which received contracts worth £203 million shortly after Mone contacted Michael Gove, then a senior minister. Findings on this case have not been fully disclosed because the National Crime Agency is conducting a criminal investigation. The UK recorded more than 220,000 Covid-related deaths and 24.7 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University data cited by Spiegel Online.

We procured a huge amount of PPE at incredible speed and I am very proud of the result.