Recommendation 9

We asked what assurances the Department could give us about the accuracy of its stock numbers. This was because the NAO reported that it could not fully reconcile the numbers from the stock model with individual contracts and said it was therefore unable to gain assurance over the accuracy of the numbers.19 The Department told us that these differences should be attributed to the fact that the stock model was not intended to be a 8 Q35 9 C&AG’s Report, para 13 10 C&AG’s Report, para 2.9 11 Q53 12 Q54 13 C&AG’s Report, para 2.5 14 Q41 15 C&AG’s Report, para 2.7 16 Q3 17 C&AG’s Report, para 2.11 18 Qq6–8 19 C&AG’s Report, Investigation into the management of PPE contracts, session 2021–22, HC 1144, 30 March 2022, para 2.2 10 Management of PPE contracts completely accurate account of all PPE stock. It said that the stock model existed to ensure that PPE could be moved around effectively.20 The Department was adamant that it knows exactly where all its stock is currently located.21 PPE stock is, however, scattered around the country; the Department listed 70 locations where it is stored, saying that it owns 50 warehouses itself and around 11,500 containers are still in use by the Department, with some PPE also still stored in China.22