2 2GM Monday May 2 2022 | the times
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cancer checks.” It comes after a report
last month by the health and social care
committee said the government’s over-
all progress on targets for cancer ser-
vices in England was “inadequate”.
The number of people being treated
for the disease during the past year
reached 315,000, compared with
313,000 before the pandemic.
Professor Pat Price, an oncologist
who leads the Catch Up With Cancer
campaign, said: “Any improvement in
patients coming forward is to be wel-
comed but we are still in the middle of
the biggest cancer crisis in history.
“My concern is the government is
portraying itself as having solved the
problem yet most of the cancer ser-
vices, like radiotherapy, are on their
knees and there are no announcements
about what is being done about improv-
ing cancer treatment capacity.
“There is a real risk that these checks
only succeed in piling cancer patients
on to already huge treatment waiting
lists resulting in more delays, reduced
cancer survival and lost lives.”
Yesterday the Press Association is-
sued an amended report for the new re-
ferral figures following an inquiry by
The Times after the government’s press
release claimed the figure was “almost
three million”. It was in fact 2,657,316.
Charities have welcomed this year’s
increase in referrals but warned of the
“devastating” impact of the pandemicThe government is paying nearly half a
million pounds a day to store personal
protective equipment, ministers have
admitted.
Edward Argar, a health minister, said
that over three months last year, the
government paid more than £78 mil-
lion to store PPE in the UK and China
— a significant reduction on costs at
the height of the pandemic.
Labour accused the government of
having “frittered away” taxpayers’
money. Angela Rayner, the party’s dep-
uty leader, wrote to the government
asking it to “publish an estimate of the
costs of storage and warehousing for
PPE from August 2021 to date”.
Argar replied: “Between September 1,
2021 to November 30 2021, the latest in-
formation available, the total cost for
personal protective equipment storage
in the UK was £72.4 million and
£5.8 million for storage in China.
“We estimate current storage costs to
be approximately £3.3 million a week.
This is a reduction of 82 per cent com-
pared to October 2020.”
Rayner said taxpayers would be “out-Storing unwanted PPE costs
taxpayers £500,000 each day
Henry Zeffman
Associate Political Editorraged” by the disclosure. “While fami-
lies are struggling to make their pay
cheques last the month, they will be
justly outraged to learn their hard-
earned taxes are being frittered away to
meet huge PPE storage costs on the
other side of the world,” she said.
“The government flushing the
public’s money down the drain with
their wasteful cronyism adds insult to
injury as they raise taxes on working
people in a cost-of-living crisis.”
Last month The Times disclosed that
PPE bought for hundreds of thousands
of pounds was being auctioned by the
government for a fraction of the origi-
nal cost to cut storage fees.
Officials said the auctions were the
best alternative to burning unwanted
PPE to avoid having to pay storage
costs.
The total cost to taxpayers of the PPE
The Times found for sale on the Ramco
website was estimated at about
£600,000. The auction running to the
end, however, had attracted bids totall-
ing only £2,500.
A 24-pallet lot of goggles had a bid of
£260, while 187,200 aprons were under
offer for £250. Potential buyers had to
be willing to pick up the PPE fromSkegness in Lincolnshire. They were
warned: “The storage location can load
an articulated curtain side truck. No
other vehicles will be accepted without
authority prior to collection.”
The National Audit Office found in
March that almost half the PPE bought
in the pandemic had been used while
14.2 billion items were languishing in
storage. One in ten items bought by the
government were unsuitable for NHS
use and it has had to write off about
£8.7 billion following falls in the value of
the stock.
Ramco, the auction site, has been
awarded a contract worth £123,000 for
PPE disposal. The Department of
Health says it is “piloting opening the
sale of excess PPE stock to the market”
to “reduce the costs to the taxpayer in
storing excess stock”.
The government has previously in-
sisted that it deliberately erred on the
side of saving lives by making sure the
NHS would not run out.
It argued that “having too much PPE
was preferable to having too little in the
face of an unpredictable and dangerous
virus, given this was essential to keep
our NHS open and protect as many
people as possible”.Sunak ‘ignored warning on defence spending’
letter, leading to tensions within the
cabinet. A split has emerged on whe-
ther there is a need to increase the de-
fence budget to counter President Pu-
tin’s threat to security, with Wallace and
Truss insisting that more must be spent.
One Whitehall source said: “MoD of-
ficials are still flabbergasted they were
barred from engaging with the Trea-
sury on this matter and the letter ap-
peared to have gone in the bin at No 11.”
Last night Treasury sources con-
firmed receipt of the letter, but said that
there had been no formal business
proposal beyond a plea for increased
funding.DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APPTo day’s highlights
7.20am
8.50am10.20am2.45pm8pmMichelle Donelan, minister for universities
Ella Mills, right, and her husband
Matthew Mills, the founders of Deliciously Ella
Theogene Rudasingwa, the former chief of
staff to President Kagame of Rwanda
Susan Cain, the bestselling author of
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a
World That Can’t Stop Talking, on her
new book Bittersweet
Film critic Ian Nathan rounds up the
week’s movie news and releases© TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2022.
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e-mail [email protected]Early fog clearing to leave a cloudy
day with a scattering of showers.
Full forecast, page 45
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THETIMES.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBEWomen quit job
over symptoms
One in ten women
working while going
through the
menopause have left a
job because of their
symptoms, a survey
has found. The poll of
4,000 women for a
Channel 4 programme
found one in seven
had cut their work
hours. Page 9
100 evacuated
at steel works
More than a hundred
women and children
have been evacuated
from the steel plant in
Mariupol, where 2,
Ukrainian troops and
hundreds of civilians
are trapped. President
Zelensky confirmed
the evacuations had
been carried out
yesterday. Page 10Asda warning
on rising prices
The chairman of Asda
urged ministers to do
more on the cost-of-
living crisis. Lord Rose
of Monewden said
food prices would keep
rising and urged
families to cut out
products they did not
need, adding that he
would be doing
the same. Page 14Everton’s hopes
are reignited
The Brazilian star
Richarlison faces an
FA inquiry after he
hurled a blue smoke
canister off the pitch at
Goodison Park, where
it had landed after his
winning goal against
Chelsea that lifted
Everton’s hopes of
Premier League
survival. Page 56Violence erupts
at Paris parade
Violence flared during
the annual May Day
parade in Paris
yesterday, with
President Macron
offered a taste of the
civil unrest he fears
will mark his second
term of office. At least
29 people were
arrested amid looting
and vandalism. Page 28
Buffett invests
in video games
Warren Buffett, the
veteran stockpicker,
has amassed a
$5.6 billion stake in the
video games group
Activision Blizzard. It
comes after his
investment empire
embarked upon its
largest stock market
spending spree in over
a decade. Page 31COMMENT
The breezy threat to sell off important public
jobs is not worthy of a grown-up prime minister
LIBBY PURVES, PAGE 25COMMENT 23
THUNDERER 24
LEADING ARTICLES 27WORLD 28
BUSINESS 31
REGISTER 41SPORT 47
CROSSWORD 56
TV & RADIO TIMEScontinued from page 1
Record cancer referralson cancer care, and urged the govern-
ment to tackle the “chronic” problem of
NHS understaffing in its ten-year
cancer plan. The plan, being drawn up
by the government, will cover how it
will tackle cancer up until 2032.
Minesh Patel, head of policy at Mac-
millan Cancer Support, said: “It is reas-
suring to see record numbers of people
coming forward. However, people liv-
ing with cancer are often missing out on
crucial care as a result of chronic NHS
understaffing.
“To avoid putting further pressure on
hardworking doctors and nurses, it’s
vital the government includes steps in
the upcoming ten-year cancer plan to
grow the number of cancer profession-
als so that people living with cancer
receive the quality and timely care they
desperately need.”before they are discharged into rivers.
Natural England’s so-called nutrient
neutrality policy now covers areas
across the country including parts of
Kent, Cornwall, Dorset and Cumbria.
Most have issued a blanket ban on
development in the affected areas until
either the ban is lifted or there is clearer
guidance on how to enforce the rules.
The Home Builders Federation esti-
mates that up to 100,000 planned prop-
erties will be put on hold. The move has
infuriated some local leaders, particu-
larly in the North East, who say it jeop-
ardises the levelling-up agenda.
Ben Houchen, Conservative mayor
of Tees Valley, said it had led planning
authorities in his area to shut up shop.
“They have been petrified into stasis,”
he said.
The Home Builders Federation said a
significant proportion of nutrient pol-
lution came from agricultural runoff
from livestock farming. It estimated
that 10,000 homes had been delayed in
Norfolk alongside 18,000 in the North
East and 2,500 around Carlisle.
The prime minister is said to be con-
sidering giving 2.5 million households
the right to buy the homes they rent
from housing associations at a dis-
counted price. The scheme, inspired by
Margaret Thatcher’s previous right-to-
buy initiative, would be intended to
help “generation rent”, according to
The Daily Telegraph.Rishi Sunak allegedly ignored a Minis-
try of Defence warning that Britain
could fail to meet its Nato spending
commitments by 2025.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary,
sounded the alarm over a real-terms
cut in security spending in a letter to the
chancellor before the spring statement
in March, The Sun reported.
Wallace was said to have warned
Sunak that Britain would not meet the
2 per cent spending commitment
because of rising inflation and the move
to arm Ukraine in its battle with Russia.
The chancellor did not increase de-
fence spending in his statement and theTreasury did not deny that he had fail-
ed to respond to his cabinet colleague’s
letter. Last week Liz Truss, the foreign
secretary, backed Wallace’s call to in-
crease the defence budget.
A Treasury spokeswoman said: “This
government has provided the largest
increase in defence spending since the
Cold War, increasing the defence bud-
get by £24 billion.
“This was an exceptional uplift in
defence spending and the decision to
prioritise taxpayers’ money on our
security was the right one.”
Treasury officials reportedly “put
pressure” on the MoD to withdraw thecontinued from page 1
Cancer checks Ban on new homes2012 14 16 18 20 220500k1m1.5m2m2.5mCancer referrals from GPs to
consultantsSource: NHS DigitalAll cancer referrals
Those met within
standard waiting timesBanca do Antfer
Telegram: https://t.me/bancadoantfer
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