Recommendation 5

We are disappointed that the Department lacks adequate controls over its inventory and, four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, still does not have a plan for stockpiling for future pandemics. The Department does not know how much inventory it currently holds as it did not undertake inventory counting Department of Health and Social Care2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts 7 procedures for its 2022–23 accounts. The Department plans to dispose of COVID-19 inventory that it considers unusable or excess to requirements, including nearly all of its Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) stock. The Department procured £13.6 billion of PPE to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, the Department has reduced the value of this (‘written off’) by £9.9 billion, which is over 70% of the price it paid. By accelerating its disposal programme, the Department has saved £130 million in storage costs. However, the absence of stocktakes means it has not verified the volume and condition of stock that it is disposing of. Additionally, the Department has not actioned our previous recommendations – that it should work out what items and quantity of PPE it needs to hold as a stockpile, and to develop and implement a clear, cost-effective plan for such a stockpile – to prepare for future pandemics. This means it risks disposing of items that could form part of the nation’s strategic stockpile for future pandemics. Recommendation 5a): The Department must, within six months, set out the lessons learnt from its COVID-19 procurement processes, including reporting: • the overall losses arising from procuring, storing, and disposing of over- priced, unusable, and excess inventories; and • the outcome of its work on procurement fraud and associated recoveries. b): The Department must, within the next six months, develop, and implement, a clear and cost-effective plan, including adequate controls, for stockpiling items required to plan for a future pandemic. This should not be delayed unt