THE government is wasting £7 million every month storing almost four billion unneeded items of personal protective equipment, a damning MPs’ report has found. 

This is equivalent to more than one in 10 of the 37.9 billion items of PPE bought by the government for more than £13bn during the coronavirus pandemic, according to report published today by the public affairs committee. 

MPs said  significant failings by the Department of Health & Social Care in its handling of PPE contracts were to blame for the surplus of items, the majority of which are faulty or out of date.