Recommendation 24

In 2023, we found that the Department did not have adequate controls over its PPE inventory and was unable to perform proper stocktakes to confirm what it held and the condition of these items. The Department did not perform full and complete stock counts on the PPE inventory it held at 31 March 2023, stating that a full stock-count would cost £70 million. We questioned the Department on how it could know which equipment was usable, what could be given away, and what could be sold, if a stock take has not been undertaken. The Department asserted that it knew what PPE inventory it had and where it is, although it admitted that it did not have access to some items held in warehouses and stacked in containers. In our report on the Department’s 2021–22 Annual Report and Accounts, we recommended that the Department should set out how it would ensure that adequate inventory controls were put in place over its PPE and report to us on its progress, which the Department has failed to implement. The Department accepted our recommendation and in its response to our report, it told us that as part of its strategy 39 The Royal College of Midwives, The contribution of continuity of midwifery care to high quality maternity care, Professor Jane Sandall CBE, RCM09150, October 2017, page 6; National Maternity Review, Better Births: Improving outcomes of maternity services in England, A Five Year Forward View for maternity care, 22 February 2016, page 9. 40 Qq 112, 114 41 Letter from Julian Kelly, Chief Finance Officer, NHS England, to Dame Meg Hillier, Chair, Committee of Public Accounts, Re: Public Accounts Committee: DHSC Annual Report and Accounts 2022–23, 26 March 2024 42 Committee of Public Accounts, Sixty-Second Report of Session 2022–23, Department of Health and Social Care 2021–22 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 997, 5 July 2023, para 1 43 C&AG’s Report, Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts 2022–23, HC 33, 25 January 2024, pages 223–224 Department of