Government cannot find £3.6bn of PPE because of an administrative error

Have they still not got the hang of Microsoft Excel?

The UK government is unable to account for £3.6 billion worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) purchased during the first year of the Covid pandemic. Revealed in the department for health's annual audit for 2020-21, no evidence was found to "support the existence or condition" of billions of pounds' worth of stock. The department has attributed the missing sum to inventory systems that were "unable to cope" with the rapid increase in PPE procurement. The audit acknowledges that nearly two years after rapid purchasing of PPE began, the department has still not been able to fully restore effective control over some of the inventory purchased. It said that while improvements to record keeping have been made, "significant work remains to be done" to guarantee a similar incident is not repeated. "In respect of the inventory held by the Department and the Group and related transactions recorded in the financial statements, the evidence available to me was limited," Gareth Davies, the National Audit Office's comptroller and auditor general, said. "The Department was unable to perform stock takes or provide alternative evidence of the existence, valuation or completeness of inventory held at year end. "Consequently, I was unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate audit evidence to support £3.6 billion of consumables inventory." "The Department’s inventory management systems were unable to cope with the significant, rapid increase in procurement and the Department did not maintain adequate records of the location or condition of £3.6 billion of inventory balances recorded in the accounts at the 31 March 2021." Overall, the accounts revealed that an astonishing £8.7bn of a total £12.1bn spent on PPE last year had been written off due to expiration dates, unsuitability or depreciation in value. It found £2.6bn had been spent on PPE "not suitable for use in the NHS" and a further £673 million that was totally unusable by anyone.

The department also acknowledged the value of its remaining stock has been slashed by £4.7bn as the price of PPE dropped.

However, the audit was unable to assess the "completeness" or "accuracy" of these figures due to a lack of evidence recorded recorded in the Core Department & Agencies’ and Group’s Statement of Financial Position. It's not the first time the department of health has found itself in the midst of an administrative disaster. In October 2020, a million-row limit on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets was thought to be responsible for Public Health England misplacing nearly 16,000 positive Covid test results. The error meant more than 50,000 potentially infectious people were not contacted by track-and-trace, weeks before the UK experienced its second wave of coronavirus. The department of health has been contacted for comment.