The Treasury has spent billions throughout the coronavirus pandemic keeping the UK afloat through schemes such as furlough and business loans. Two new reports have exposed the “significant financial risks” that could be on the way for the taxpayer. The reports, on the response by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to the COVID-19 pandemic, parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said lessons needed to be learned before a promised public inquiry due to be held in 2022.
The PAC said there have been unacceptably high levels of wasteful spending, with 2.1 billion items of unusable PPE purchased – equating to £2 billion of wasted public money.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman responded: “There are robust processes in place to ensure that government spending always provides value for money for the taxpayer.
“We have worked tirelessly to source life-saving PPE to protect health and care staff, and we have delivered over 12.7 billion items to the frontline at record speed.”
Meg Hillier, the PAC chair, said: “With eye-watering sums of money spent on COVID…
