An analysis of financial disclosures since the start of last year found enough Whitehall waste to cover the courts, prisons and probation budget for a year, or fund more than half of Jeremy Hunt’s expected tax raid.
An investigation by The Telegraph found billions of pounds were lost in Covid-related support, unused or broken protective equipment and apparently frivolous items such as £6,000 on a villa in Italy.
Other wasted money had been spent on poorly managed infrastructure projects that were either reversed or delayed.
Last night, Jacob Rees-Mogg described the waste as “disgraceful”. “You can’t reasonably ask taxpayers for money that you then waste … you have to set your budgets on the basis that the money will be spent effectively and therefore you have to raise a lower level of taxation,” he said.
The total includes seemingly wasteful expense claims by public officials. inadequate PPE; money wasted on poorly managed projects; and fraudulent Covid support claims; based on financial disclosures published in the last year or the most recent twelve months available.
The revelations come as Jeremy Hunt prepares to plug a £50bn hole in Britain’s finances – with £24bn of the funding expected to come from tax rises.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “Every pound of taxpayers’ money wasted is a pound not spent on public and public services or tax cuts. And that really hits the taxpayer’s pocket.”
Huge amounts of waste related to the pandemic, with the Department of Health and Social Care spending more than £4 billion on PPE – of which £2.6 billion was inappropriate, £670 million defective and £750 million over-required. It then paid £436m in fines for leaving mountains of PPE in storage for too long and agreed to pay £35m to destroy PPE it cannot use.
