Prisoners paid £3.50 a day to dismantle Covid tests and PPE bought with taxpayers' money

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The government has been accused of using prisoners to cover its tracks, with detainees dismantling PPE including test kits, some of which are believed to still be dated , masks and full face masks. hazmat suits

The mountain of unusable PPE was kept in shipping containers near Felixstowe in Suffolk (

Image: Bav Media)

Taxpayers stung for billions of pounds of unnecessary PPE are shelling out again - for delays to secretly dismantle excess kit.

Prisoners are given £3.50 a day to remove recyclable materials from packets of masks, visors and other equipment, then dispose of the rest.

In an extraordinary move, seven million test kits – some of which were allegedly dated – were placed in trucks and dumped in jails for dismantling.

The gigantic PPE mountain even includes full-body hazmat suits. The value of the kit is unclear, but at known average production costs it could be as much as £12m.

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper quipped tonight: 'The government has been guilty of criminal levels of waste during the pandemic, it now appears to be using prisoners to cover its tracks.'

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Containers storing unusable PPE at a Suffolk building site (

Picture:

bav media)

The loot - hoarded after desperate medics demanded supplies - includes items originally intended for the prisoners themselves.

Work continues in three prisons, each housing three workshops. Up to 20 inmates work hard at each site for six hours a day, five days a week.

The scheme has been going on for six months - without...