Recommendation 25

In 2023, the Department estimated that it would cost £319 million to store and dispose of unusable or unneeded PPE. The Department told us that it had accelerated its disposal programme, to save £130 million in storage costs that it would otherwise incur. We asked the Department what consideration had been given to giving equipment away to others rather than disposing of it. The Department stated that it had undertaken an extensive international engagement programme to determine whether PPE could be reused within the NHS and in health and social care settings, or could be donated, including to other countries. It explained that it explored both of these options before seeking to incinerate waste for energy, and that its final option, which it sought to avoid, was landfill.45