A significant amount was deemed not suitable for use by health staff

4 Feb 2022 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Michael Gove incorrect to say 97% of PPE procured 'fit-for-purpose'

“97% of the equipment [PPE] that we secured was ready, fit-for-purpose and there on the front line” —Michael Gove on the Today programme, 2 February 2022

A DHSC spokesperson told us that 97% of PPE items by item count, procured in the 2020/21 financial year, were usable. But Mr Gove is incorrect because not all of these items were “fit-for-purpose” or “on the front line”.

The spokesperson told us the remaining 3% which wasn’t usable corresponds to the £0.67 billion of PPE described in the department’s annual report as equipment “which cannot be used, for instance because it is defective.”

This doesn’t include £2.6 billion of PPE which was deemed “not suitable for use within the health and social care sector”, and so couldn’t reasonably be described as being “fit-for-purpose.” Nor could it be described as “there on the front line”, as Mr Gove said.

An additional £0.75 billion of PPE was said to be “in excess of the amount that will ultimately be needed.”

In total this amounts to a third of the £12.1 billion that was spent on pandemic-related PPE in England in the 2020/21 financial year.

Mr Gove’s claim related to item count, rather than the value of items. It’s not clear how many individual items of PPE this £4 billion equates to.

We’ve written to Mr Gove asking for a correction ([link removed])
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FACT CHECK
Boris Johnson recycles online claim about Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile ([link removed])

"He spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile" —Boris Johnson in the Commons on Monday.

The facts: Keir Starmer was head of the Crown Prosecution Service when the decision was made not to prosecute Savile but he was not the reviewing lawyer for the case.

The Prime Minister has since clarified: “I totally understand he had nothing to do personally with those decisions”

We first fact checked this claim in June 2020 after it began spreading on social media. We’re very grateful to everyone who shared our fact check again this week, which has been referenced hundreds of times in the media this week, including by The Guardian, The Independent, The Standard, ITV, Sky and Mail.

The facts ([link removed])
FACT CHECK
Government website make percentage error on National Insurance rise ([link removed])

Government web pages explaining planned increases to National Insurance repeatedly state that contributions will increase by 1.25% from April. In fact, the rise is a 1.25 percentage point increase applied to existing National Insurance rates, not a percentage increase on those rates.

This might sound pedantic, but it makes a big difference to the figures.

Consumer journalist Martin Lewis has also highlighted this on Twitter. Most people will see a 10% increase in the amount of National Insurance they pay after the rise.

If something rises by 1.25% it means it gets 1.25% higher, which could mean a relatively small change. For example, a tax bill of £1,000 would become £1,012.50 if it rose by 1.25%.

However, a tax rate is itself a percentage, and percentages are often said to rise by percentage points—meaning how many steps it rises up the percentage scale.

This could mean a much bigger increase in cash terms. For example, if your tax bill was £1,000 at 12%, a tax of 13.25% (adding the 1.25 percentage point increase) would leave you with an updated payment of £1,104.17.

We have found 10 examples of this error across government websites.

1.25% rise ≠ 1.25 percentage point rise ([link removed])
REPEAT CLAIM ALERT
Boris Johnson repeats false employment claim in Parliament for SIXTH time ([link removed])

Once again, the Prime Minister has told Parliament that there are more people in work now than there were before the pandemic began. In reality, there are 600,000 fewer people in work.

The Ministerial code states: “It is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity."

The PM first made this claim in November, before making it several more times in December, January and now February. The earliest opportunity to correct this statement has long passed.

We know that Number 10 are aware this is inaccurate, as the Office for Statistics Regulation wrote to Downing Street the day before this week’s PMQs, after Full Fact brought these repeat claims to their attention.

The public deserves better than bad information. At the very least, demonstrably and unambiguously false statements in Parliament must be corrected.

Boris Johnson must correct the record ([link removed])
MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* Surgeon makes several incorrect claims about the Covid vaccine on GB News ([link removed])
* What did Boris Johnson tell MPs about the alleged 13 November Downing Street party? ([link removed])
* And no, a needle prick cannot save the life of a stroke victim, call an ambulance! ([link removed])

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