Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Accepted
Estimated £319 million cost for PPE storage and disposal, donation efforts explored.
Conclusion
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
Government Response Summary
The government has accepted the implicit recommendation, confirming that storage costs for excess PPE will cease by January 2025. It also committed to continue examining lessons learned from the pandemic, including engagement with the Covid-19 inquiry, with an update to the Committee by January 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: January 2025 5.2 The 2021 Boardman Review of Government Procurement in the COVID-19 pandemic on lessons learned from the pandemic included 11 recommendations for the department. This resulted in a review of the future structure of procurement in the health sector, with Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL) being transferred to NHS England and measures taken to improve SCCL’s resilience. The department wrote to the committee in March 2023 setting out its future strategy for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including lessons learned in relation to PPE procurement. 5.3 The department continues to examine the lessons learned from the pandemic, including being fully engaged with the procurement module of the Covid-19 inquiry and will update the new Committee by the end of January 2025. 5.4 The department spent £13.6 billion buying PPE from the start of the pandemic until the end of the financial year 2023. The costs of storing excess PPE are shown in the table below: C ost of Storage – by Financial Year in £ FY 2020-21 FY 2021-22 FY 2022-23 FY 2023-24 Total All Storage 481,448,973 410,583,857 256,829,048 123,699,709 5.5 Storage costs for excess PPE will cease by January 2025. Remaining storage costs will relate to the pandemic preparedness stock and sample PPE retained as part of dissolution activities. The cost of storing these products is not yet known.