MPs criticise government plans to burn £4bn of unusable PPE

The figures are eye watering – £4 billion of unusable personal protective equipment to be burnt and £11 billion of public money arguably squandered by the Treasury through a failure of policy.

Both an inquiry on PPE from the Public Accounts Committee and a report from an economic think-tank levelled the same charge today – a government not showing sufficient care with taxpayers’ money, which is a charge ministers dispute.