The 2024-25 annual report and accounts for the Department of Health and Social Care has been published today, 11 December 2025.
The annual report discloses losses relating to covid-19 inventory that the Department is reporting under the requirements of HM Treasury’s “Managing Public Money” guidance on dealing with public resources. The losses primarily relate to inventory procured during the pandemic, the great majority of which has already been impaired in departmental financial statements in previous years. However, we are required to disclose losses when they crystallise, which is when they reach their expiry dates or are subject to disposal. The losses are as follows:
Covid-19 medicines
There were two constructive losses occurring in 2024-25, of £856 million and £393 million respectively, relating to two covid-19 antiviral medicines that reached their expiry dates during the year. The bulk of these items were procured from December 2021 in response to the emergence of the omicron variant in late 2021, at a time when its severity and potential impact on vaccine efficacy were uncertain. In practice, the impact was less severe than previous variants, meaning not all medicines purchased were used prior to their expiry dates. All efforts were made with the manufacturers and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to extend the expiry dates to the greatest extent possible in order to get best value from the Government’s investment.
Covid-19 vaccines
The annual report and accounts disclose a constructive loss valued at £527 million relating to 19,285,820 doses of covid-19 vaccine, all of which reached their expiry dates during the 2024- 25 financial year. This was due to the actual use of vaccines ultimately falling below the total of 412,177,005 covid-19 vaccine doses procured as part of pandemic contracts, the majority of which were signed in the 2020-21 financial year. This level of vaccine doses was procured to give the Government the ability to vaccinate the entire population under potential “reasonable worst-case scenarios”, meaning there was always a risk that some stock would expire before it was potentially required.
Covid-19 testing kits
A loss of £0.7 million (547,420 units) has been disclosed relating to testing kits which reached their expiry date during 2024-25 and could not be repurposed. The stock was therefore disposed of, avoiding further storage costs being incurred by the taxpayer.
Covid-19 personal protective equipment
A “claim waived or abandoned” loss arises where a decision is taken not to present or pursue a claim, which could be, or has been, properly made. As set out in the DHSC group 2024-25 annual report and accounts, the Department is now waiving or abandoning claims to the value of £572 million against 25 covid-19 PPE suppliers. The Government covid counter-fraud commissioner has reviewed these cases and supports the Department’s course of action in each.
Managed quarantine service
A loss of £16.7 million has been disclosed in relation to debts arising from the covid-19 managed quarantine service. The MOS handled 214,000 arrivals who entered the UK during the pandemic between April and December 2021[1] and who were required to isolate in a quarantine hotel provided by the service. Of the loss disclosed, £6.3 million relates to debt where there is insufficient evidence of validity and £10.4 million relates to “hardship” debt which is no longer economically viable to pursue.
[HCWS1160]