Three billion PPE gloves ‘were made by slave labour’

THREE billion PPE gloves bought by Britain for the pandemic are under investigation amid allegations of modern slavery, health officials say.

It came as MPS investigated the scale of waste during the pandemic, after accounts revealed that taxpayers could face a £10 billion bill for items that were unused or over-priced.

In February, Department of Health and Social Care documents revealed vast sums spent on goods that were never used or were not fit for purpose.

Last night, health officials said tens of thousands of items were now being burned, or in some cases recycled, with billions of pounds being spent on storing excess stocks. And they revealed that three billion single gloves may be returned to suppliers because of allegations that the company supplying them was guilty of modern slavery.

Jonathan Marron, Department of Health director-general for finance, told the public accounts committee that the Government now has 6.5billion PPE items that cannot be used. This includes 2.5billion items that the NHS cannot use as they do not meet standards, one billion items that are not fit for any use, and three billion gloves that meet technical standards but are the subject of an investigation, following concerns about the use of forced labour by overseas suppliers, often relying on migrant workers.

Mr Marron revealed plans to destroy 15,000 pallets of PPE a month, with most of it to be burned. In some cases, efforts were being made to recycle materials, with PPE aprons being turned into bin liners, he said.

The health official said some stocks had been sold or donated to countries who could make use of them.