{"id":2187,"date":"2026-07-14T22:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnnglobalnews.com\/2026\/07\/14\/billions-of-uk-taxpayers-money-wasted-during-covid-inquiry\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T22:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:51:13","slug":"billions-of-uk-taxpayers-money-wasted-during-covid-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=2187","title":{"rendered":"Billions of UK taxpayers\u2019 money wasted during Covid \u2013 inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inadequate planning left Britain unprepared, forcing a costly scramble for vital medical supplies, a report has found<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UK wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money during the Covid-19 pandemic, a damning report from the official public inquiry has concluded. Years of inadequate planning and systemic failures left Britain unprepared for the global race to secure vital medical supplies, the investigation found.<\/p>\n

Published on Tuesday, the fifth report by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, chaired by former judge Baroness Heather Hallett, found that nearly \u00a310 billion ($13.4 billion) of the approximately \u00a314.9 billion spent on personal protective equipment (PPE) was wasted. Combined spending by the UK and the devolved administrations on PPE, ventilators, and testing equipment topped \u00a342 billion between January 2020 and June 2022.<\/p>\n

Britain was \u201csimply not ready to compete\u201d<\/em> in the global race for vital medical supplies because those responsible were \u201ccaught off-guard, with inadequate and untested plans\u201d<\/em> for emergency procurement and distribution, Hallett said, adding that \u201cthe waste of taxpayers\u2019 money was vast.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The country entered the pandemic with its PPE stockpile \u201cin a perilous state,\u201d<\/em> including large quantities of expired equipment, while emergency procurement and distribution plans had never been properly tested, according to the report. It also found that the country was too reliant on China for key medical supplies, leaving it vulnerable when governments around the world began competing for limited stocks.<\/p>\n

Doctors, nurses, and care workers were left without adequate protective equipment, with some forced to use makeshift gear such as bin bags, shower caps, and supplies bought online, according to evidence cited by the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Former
Thousands of lives lost due to UK\u2019s botched Covid-19 response \u2013 inquiry<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One Department of International Trade official described the search for ventilators as a \u201cWild West,\u201d<\/em> with speculators and intermediaries driving up prices as governments competed for scarce supplies, according to evidence heard by the inquiry.<\/p>\n

The report also criticized the High Priority, or \u201cVIP\u201d<\/em> lane, which fast-tracked offers from suppliers referred by ministers, MPs, peers and senior officials. Hallett called it a \u201cmisguided attempt at prioritization\u201d<\/em> that embedded unfairness and undermined public trust.<\/p>\n

Earlier reports by the inquiry found that the authorities across the UK acted \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d<\/em> during the pandemic and that delays in introducing restrictions contributed to thousands of additional deaths. They also described the cabinet of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson as having a \u201ctoxic and chaotic culture,\u201d<\/em> saying key decisions were often dominated or derailed by his inner circle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inadequate planning left Britain unprepared, forcing a costly scramble for vital medical supplies, a report has found The UK wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money during the Covid-19 pandemic, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}