Taxpayers stung for billions of pounds-worth of useless PPE are now forking out again – for lags to secretly dismantle surplus kit.
Prisoners are handed £3.50 per day to remove recyclable materials from packs of masks, visors and other gear – then dump the rest.
In an extraordinary move, seven million testing kits – some reportedly in date – were put on lorries and dropped off at jails to be broken up.
The mammoth PPE mountain even includes full body hazmat suits. The value of the kit is not clear but at average known production costs it could be £12million.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper hit out tonight: “The Government was guilty of criminal levels of waste during the pandemic, now it seems they’re using prisoners to cover their tracks.”
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The haul – amassed after desperate carers had been crying out for supplies – includes items originally meant for prisoners themselves.
The work is going on at three jails each home to three workshops. Up to 20 inmates toil away at each site for six hours a day, five days a week.
The scheme has been going on for six months – with no end in sight.
An insider said: “It’s an extraordinary situation. I suppose it makes sense as doing it in prison means the public have no idea it is going on. Some people ask whether this operation could provide work for people who haven’t broken the law.”
The dumped swab kits were marked for the Department for Health and Social Care.
Today government sources claimed they had gone out of date. But insiders said some were marked as expiring in December 2023.
Lorryloads of kit were picked up near Felixstowe, Suffolk, where PPE was reportedly held in shipping containers.
Some of the kit was driven 170 miles to Ranby prison near Retford, Notts.
The category C jail was criticised in July for failing to provide purposeful activity for 1,000 inmates.
Lib Dem Ms Cooper added: “Ministers must come clean over how much PPE is being dismantled in prisons and at what cost to the taxpayer.
“Millions of pounds was wasted on faulty PPE and crony Covid contracts. The public deserves full transparency about how much it will cost to clean up their mess.”
Barrister Joylon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said: “Paying prisoners money to destroy stuff we never needed but bought for billions from ministers’ friends feels like a Mafia TV series plot. In fact, it’s just everyday life in the UK under this government.”
In June, figures revealed ministers spent almost £9billion on PPE that was either substandard, defective, out of date or dramatically overpriced.
Some £673million of equipment was unusable, according to 2020/21 accounts, while £750million went on items that expired before being used.
Nearly £2.6billion was spent on “items not suitable for use in the NHS ”, but which the Department of Health thinks can be sold or given to charities.
The Prison Service said: “This project ensures waste is recycled and saves taxpayer money.”
A Justice Department source said: “Masks and other PPE being destroyed were made for prisoners across England and Wales and supplied by the Government.
“The tests came directly from the UK Health Security Agency.”
