The UK wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money during the Covid-19 pandemic, a damning report from the official public inquiry has concluded. Years of inadequate planning and systemic failures left Britain unprepared for the global race to secure vital medical supplies, the investigation found.

Published on Tuesday, the fifth report by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, chaired by former judge Baroness Heather Hallett, found that nearly £10 billion ($13.4 billion) of the approximately £14.9 billion spent on personal protective equipment (PPE) was wasted. Combined spending by the UK and the devolved administrations on PPE, ventilators, and testing equipment topped £42 billion between January 2020 and June 2022.

Britain was “simply not ready to compete” in the global race for vital medical supplies because those responsible were “caught off-guard, with inadequate and untested plans” for emergency procurement and distribution, Hallett said, adding that “the waste of taxpayers’ money was vast.”

The country entered the pandemic with its PPE stockpile “in a perilous state,” including large quantities of expired equipment, while emergency procurement and distribution plans had never been properly tested, according to the report. It also found that the country was too reliant on China for key medical supplies, leaving it vulnerable when governments around the world began competing for limited stocks.

Doctors, nurses, and care workers were left without adequate protective equipment, with some forced to use makeshift gear such as bin bags, shower caps, and supplies bought online, according to evidence cited by the inquiry.

One Department of International Trade official described the search for ventilators as a “Wild West,” with speculators and intermediaries driving up prices as governments competed for scarce supplies, according to evidence heard by the inquiry.

The report also criticized the High Priority, or “VIP” lane, which fast-tracked offers from suppliers referred by ministers, MPs, peers and senior officials. Hallett called it a “misguided attempt at prioritization” that embedded unfairness and undermined public trust.

Earlier reports by the inquiry found that the authorities across the UK acted “too little, too late” during the pandemic and that delays in introducing restrictions contributed to thousands of additional deaths. They also described the cabinet of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson as having a “toxic and chaotic culture,” saying key decisions were often dominated or derailed by his inner circle.