An official inquiry has concluded that Boris Johnson’s government wasted £10 billion of public money due to its flawed approach to buying personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, also criticized the then Conservative government’s controversial “VIP lane,” which gave priority for PPE contracts to companies with political ties to the Tories.
The most high-profile scandal involving VIP lane contracts was with PPE Medpro, a newly formed company linked to the then Conservative peer Michelle Mone. It was awarded two contracts worth £203 million after Mone first approached Michael Gove, the then Cabinet Office minister, in May 2020.
The inquiry has heard evidence related to PPE Medpro, and Lady Hallett, a former court of appeal judge, has reached her conclusions. However, these are not yet being published because of a long-running investigation by the National Crime Agency into how the contracts were awarded. Hallett’s findings will only be released after any criminal proceedings are concluded.
In her report, Hallett said: “The ‘high priority lane,’ also known as the ‘VIP lane,’ was a misguided attempt to give priority to the most credible offers,” and that it “embedded unfairness” in the procurement process. She found that “some suppliers received favourable treatment because they had connections to government,” which “undermined public trust at a moment when it was needed most.”
The waste of PPE bought as the crisis hit—mainly from manufacturers in China—was widely reported within months, as supplies piled up and began to be thrown away. “The UK entered the pandemic with an inadequate stockpile of PPE and plans that had never been stress-tested,” Hallett said.
“The waste of public money was vast and could have been avoided. Of approximately £14.9 billion spent on PPE, nearly two-thirds—almost £10 billion—was wasted.”
Hallett’s report says £4.2 billion was paid by the government on “VIP lane” PPE contracts.
During the hearings on procurement in March 2025, Pete Weatherby KC, a lawyer for Covid Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ), which represents about 7,000 people whose relatives died during the pandemic, called for “scrutiny as to whether cronyism, unfair advantage and corruption allowed chancers to make fabulous profits at the expense of all of us, the bereaved, the key workers.”
Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, and other ministers defended the VIP lane at the inquiry, arguing it allowed the government to prioritize credible offers.
Theodore Agnew, a Cabinet Office minister at the time, told the inquiry it was “bollocks” to suggest the VIP lane was “some kind of plan by rightwing people trying to enrich themselves.”
Hallett concluded that the inquiry “has not identified cronyism or corruption on the part of ministers and officials in final contracting decisions.” But she said: “The ‘high priority’ lane should not have been established and must not be repeated.”
Hallett added: “Although it was not intended, the system was inherently biased towards those with connections to the UK government. This heightened the risk of abuse.”
In a damning report, Hallett found that the nation’s stockpile of PPE and other vital healthcare equipment was inadequate at the start of the pandemic.Doctors, healthcare workers, and care staff were unable to protect themselves or the people they were caring for from infection.
Members of the CBFFJ told the inquiry they believed that a lack of adequate PPE and equipment contributed to their relatives catching COVID-19 and dying. Before the report was released, the group said about the government’s procurement failures and the VIP lane: “For bereaved families, these were not just administrative mistakes. Many believe their loved ones died, at least in part, because health and care services didn’t have the equipment, supplies, and systems needed to keep patients and staff safe.”
“What makes these failures even harder to accept is that some well-connected individuals and companies made huge profits from these same failures.”
Hallett agreed that patients and care home residents were put at risk during the deadliest early period of the pandemic. She concluded that the UK’s PPE stockpile was “in a dangerous state” and that the UK was “simply not ready to compete” in the frantic global rush to buy healthcare equipment. However, she praised the public, businesses, and the UK’s life sciences and advanced manufacturing sectors for coming together “enthusiastically” to help.
“As the pandemic got worse, many doctors, nurses, and care staff worked without adequate PPE or enough healthcare equipment like ventilators,” she said. “This left them unable to properly protect themselves or those in their care from dangerous infection.”
In the report, Hallett made 11 recommendations to ensure that the rushed scramble for vital healthcare equipment, the huge waste of public money, and government procurement that favored politically connected companies would not happen again in any future pandemic.
The recommendations included investing in British advanced manufacturing, improving pandemic stockpile management, “radically overhauling” the necessary supply chain and emergency procurement systems, and “improving transparency, governance, and accountability in emergency procurement, so the public can be confident that money is being spent properly and fairly.”
Hallett concluded: “A better prepared emergency procurement system will reduce the cost of getting essential supplies and save lives.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the COVID inquirys finding that the Johnson government wasted 10 billion on PPE
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What is the PPE scandal everyone is talking about
It means the UK government spent about 10 billion extra on personal protective equipment during the pandemic than it needed to The COVID inquiry says this money was wasted because of bad decisions
2 Who was in charge when this happened
Boris Johnson was the Prime Minister at the time
3 How did they waste that much money
Mainly by signing very expensive contracts with companies that had no experience making PPE They paid high prices for equipment that was often faulty never arrived or arrived too late to be used
4 Did anyone go to jail for this
Not yet The inquiry is about finding out what went wrong not about putting people in prison However the findings could lead to police investigations or legal action in the future
5 Does this mean all the PPE was bad
No Some of it was good and saved lives But a huge chunkworth billionswas unusable like masks that fell apart or gloves that had holes in them
Intermediate Advanced Questions
6 What specific VIP lane was mentioned in the inquiry
The government created a fasttrack system where MPs ministers and their friends could recommend companies for PPE contracts The inquiry found this system bypassed normal checks leading to many bad deals
7 Why didnt the government just buy from normal suppliers
At the height of the pandemic there was a global shortage The government panicked and felt they had to act fast The inquiry says this speed over safety approach led to them overpaying and accepting dodgy goods
8 What happened to all the unusable PPE
Millions of items have been stockpiled in warehouses Some has been donated to other countries some has been incinerated and a lot is still sitting there costing money to store
9 How does this 10 billion compare to the total PPE budget
The UK spent over 12 billion on PPE in total So 10 billion represents the vast majority of that spending being wasted or poorly managed
10 What practical changes has the government made since then
The government
