£4bn of NHS COVID PPE to be burned as it is unusable, says committee report

The NHS's procurement warehouse at Larkhall in 2020. The public accounts committee says there is £4bn-worth of PPE in storage that cannot be used by frontline workers because it is substandard. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Protective clothing worth £4bn bought early in the pandemic to stop NHS staff being infected with Covid is to be burned because it is unusable, a report has revealed.

The imminent destruction of so many items and waste of public money is disclosed in a report by the Commons public accounts committee (PAC) that is scathing of the DHSC’s strategy when the Covid pandemic struck in 2020.