THE Tory government is auctioning off hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of PPE online for “virtually nothing”.
The UK Government, which wasted around £8.7 billion on unusable and unnecessary PPE purchases in a single year, ended up with huge stockpiles of surplus stock.
The Department for Health admitted it had squandered £750m on PPE “which is in excess of the amount that will ultimately be needed” alone.
The massive overspend was noted by Westminster's Public Accounts Committee, which found that while the DHSC had “intended to build up a stockpile that could last four months”, the amount purchased “could last five years”.
READ MORE: Here's how many billions the Tories wasted in one year - and how Scotland could have spent it
In an attempt to claw back some of the lost money, the Tories have begun auctioning off PPE online.
The website ramco.co.uk currently has 10 lots listed with no reserve, and starting bids of just £250. However, some of those lots cost the Government more than £100,000 to purchase, according to figures from Labour.
Millions of items including aprons, visors, hand sanitisers and goggles are up for sale. The Department of Health claimed on its website that it was selling the PPE to “reduce the costs to the taxpayer in storing excess stock” and to “reduce expired excess stock through the waste management hierarchy”.
Analysis from Labour used average unit price figures from the National Audit Office to conclude that the Government may have paid more than £600,000 for the goods up for auction. Buyers must have an articulated curtain side truck and be willing to pick the goods up from various locations around the UK on April 18.
READ MORE: Comparison to Scotland shows scale of public cash 'wasted' by Tories on PPE
Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “The Conservatives wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on useless PPE that they’re now giving away for virtually nothing.
“If they hadn’t been so wasteful with the public’s money, the Government might not need to raise taxes on working people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.”
Labour’s estimates of the purchase price of each lot can be seen here:
The lots for sale on Ramco can be seen here.
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