It has come to light that the UK is storing three billion pieces of personal protective equipment in China.
The health department is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds each month to keep the surplus PPE.
The government has 17.7 billion personal protective equipment (PPE) articles, of which more than a sixth are kept in storage facilities and warehouses in China, according to health minister Maria Caulfield.
It was stored between September and December of last year at a cost of £5.8 million and is estimated to be worth more than £1 billion.
It refers to the government transferring millions of pounds to China every year in what the Taxpayers’ Alliance has dubbed “cheques to China.”
The think group asked the government to sell or otherwise dispose of the extra stock, claiming that the revelations will “shock” taxpayers.
The Department of Health and Social Care stated that “saving lives” was their top goal during the pandemic. According to a spokesman, “We have been steadily lowering our logistics costs and will continue to do so.”
John O’Connell, CEO of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, however, asserted that “these checks to China for PPE storage will shock taxpayers.”
‘Billions of pounds of PPE have already been written off, yet there is no end in sight.
‘The Government needs to sell or dispose of excess supplies and ensure taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for endless storage.’
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: `Not only have the Conservatives wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on PPE that can’t be used, it is not even in the country.
‘Had the Conservatives not been so wasteful with public funds, they would not need to raise taxes on working people during a cost-of-living crisis.’
Between April 2020 and April 2021, the government spent a total of £12.1 billion on PPE, yet it turned out that £8.7 billion of the money was wasted.
This includes £673 million for completely useless equipment and £750 million for things that were left unused after their expiration dates. Surplus aprons, visors, hand sanitizers, and goggles were among the unused PPE.
The Government was reportedly paying two companies £35 million in taxpayer money to burn PPE, according to a Daily Mail investigation from April. And just last month, a research by MPs indicated that the total value of obsolete PPE that will be burned might reach £4 billion.
The revelation that Britain is spending millions of pounds to store PPE in China comes despite a Government review last year warning of the increasing threat the country poses.
Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak supported the report’s assertion that China is “an huge threat” to British national security at Sunday night’s Conservative leadership debate.
And a report by think tank Civitas in May found the NHS was ‘dangerously over-reliant’ on China. The NHS traveled to Beijing “cap in hand” during the pandemic, and the research revealed that dependence on Chinese imports had risen since 2019.
The only other nation the UK is keeping unneeded PPE is China.
A comment from the Department of Health was requested.