{"id":51435,"date":"2020-07-09T13:19:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T12:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=51435"},"modified":"2020-07-09T13:19:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T12:19:14","slug":"15-billion-for-ppe-really-something-feels-very-wrong-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2020\/07\/09\/15-billion-for-ppe-really-something-feels-very-wrong-here\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c2\u00a315 billion for PPE? Really? Something feels very wrong here"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2020\/07\/08\/calls-inquiry-treasury-reveals-15bn-cost-ppe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">government has claimed<\/a> it has spent \u00a315 billion on PPE as a result of coronavirus. Given that we know there shortages of PPE until very recently I am taking \u2018spent\u2019 as meaning that amount has been used.<\/p>\n<p>Now, there are 500,000 front line staff in the NHS who need PPE.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s \u00a330,000 each.<\/p>\n<p>If care staff are added maybe 2 million people are affected, but many of the others will have much simpler PPE need.<\/p>\n<p>Assume it\u2019s spread evenly. That\u2019s \u00a37,500 each.<\/p>\n<p>And the crisis is 120 days old at most. But in work terms call it 100 days at most each.<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s 200 million work days.<\/p>\n<p>Or \u00a375 per person for PPE per work day.<\/p>\n<p>People I speak to say this sounds absurd. A gown is 50p. Gloves and masks are normal and used all the time. They cost pennies each. OK, lots are used, but not that many. And sure full suits are more, but most aren\u2019t wearing them. And visor masks? How much are they?<\/p>\n<p>Something about this does not stack, especially when we know most could not get PPE for love nor money during this period.<\/p>\n<p>Who is not telling the truth?<\/p>\n<p>And who is making a fortune?<\/p>\n<p>Or is there fraud somewhere?<\/p>\n<p>As an auditor (and I was for many years) I smell what I would simply suggest is \u2018something not right\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>This claim needs investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government has claimed it has spent \u00a315 billion on PPE as a result of coronavirus. Given that we know there shortages of PPE until<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2020\/07\/09\/15-billion-for-ppe-really-something-feels-very-wrong-here\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-auditing","category-nhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}