China gets paid millions to stock our surplus personal protective equipment after spending spree amid Covid pandemic
UK spends hundreds of thousands of pounds to store personal protective equipment in China
The government has 17.7 billion PPE, one-sixth of which is stored in China
The government paid two companies £35m in public money to burn personal protective equipment
They spent £12.1 billion on personal protective equipment in 2020, but at least £8.7 billion was wasted
<!–
<!–
<!– <!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
The UK stores three billion personal protective equipment in China, it turns out.
The health department spends hundreds of thousands of pounds each month to stockpile the excess personal protective equipment.
Health Minister Maria Caulfield said this week the government has 17.7 billion items of personal protective equipment and more than a sixth is stored in storage units and warehouses in China.
It is estimated to be worth more than £1 billion and cost £5.8 million in storage between September and December last year.
£4bn worth of unusable personal protective equipment will be burned, according to a report from MPs last month
It means the government sends millions of pounds to China every year, branded as ‘cheques to China’ by the taxpayers’ alliance. The think tank said the revelations will “shock” taxpayers and urged the government to sell or dispose of the excess stock.
The Ministry of Health and Social Care said the priority during the pandemic was to save lives. A spokesperson said: ‘We have reduced our logistics costs over time and will continue to do so.’
But John O’Connell, CEO of the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “These checks to China for PPE storage will shock taxpayers.
Billions of pounds of personal protective equipment have already been written off, but the end is not yet in sight.
“The government must sell or dispose of surplus stocks and make sure taxpayers don’t pay for endless storage.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘Not only have the Conservatives wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on PPE that cannot be used, it’s not even in the country.
Former chancellor and conservative party leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak said China is ‘an enormous threat’ to Britain’s national security
“If the Conservatives weren’t so wasteful of public funds, they wouldn’t have to raise taxes on workers during a cost of living crisis.”
In total, in the first year of the pandemic – from April 2020 to April 2021 – the government spent £12.1 billion on personal protective equipment, but it turned out that £8.7 billion was wasted.
This included £673 million worth of equipment that was found to be totally unusable and £750 million worth of items not used before their expiration date. Among the unused PPE were surplus aprons, visors, hand sanitizers and safety glasses.
The Daily Mail reported in April that the government paid two companies £35 million in public money to burn personal protective equipment. And last month, a report from MPs revealed that a staggering £4 billion worth of useless PPE in total will be burned.
The revelation that Britain is spending millions of pounds to store personal protective equipment in China comes despite a government review last year warning of the growing threat the country poses.
The government has 17.7 billion items of personal protective equipment and more than a sixth is stored in storage units and warehouses in China, Health Minister Maria Caulfield said this week.
During Sunday night’s conservative leadership debate, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he supported the report’s view that China is “a huge threat” to Britain’s national security.
And a report from think tank Civitas in May found the NHS was ‘dangerously over dependent’ on China. The report found that the NHS’s reliance on Chinese imports has tripled since 2019 after it went ‘cap in hand’ to Beijing during the pandemic.
China is the only other country where the UK stores unused personal protective equipment.
The Ministry of Health has been asked for comment.