Oral Answers to Questions

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 29th April 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

First, may I pass on my very deepest condolences to the widow in my hon Friend’s constituency? I, along with other Ministers, have the grim task of reading out the total death toll at the press conferences, and I always walk away ashen-faced at what this must mean for individual families up and down the country. He is right to pay tribute to those in the NHS, who are doing an amazing job, and I think all of us across the House paid tribute to them and the care workers, particularly with our minute’s silence yesterday. My hon. Friend is absolutely right also to say that they are not just there to treat the physical condition, whether coronavirus or otherwise; they do an amazing job as providers of emotional support for patients and their families, and that is too easily overlooked as we come through this crisis.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

The UK opted out of the EU joint procurement of PPE, ventilators and medical equipment. Will the First Secretary confirm whether that was a political or commercial decision, and take this opportunity to say that we will take any future opportunity to join any EU scheme that helps to safeguard supplies to our NHS, in order to avoid any preventable deaths in our communities, or in the NHS or care services?

[Dominic Raab]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. As he will know, because it has been made clear by the Government and clarified when it was not clear, the original issue was a failure of communication—we did not get the original invitation to tender. It is clear to us that the schemes in relation to the first batch of EU-wide procurement would not have made any significant extra difference or added any value to what we are doing here. I can tell him that we will look at any future EU-wide procurement initiatives, for example, on therapeutics. I can also reassure him that one thing we are doing is working very closely with our European partners on returns and repatriations. That is somewhere we have taken advantage of EU-wide schemes if they can help us to share costs. That is the collaborative, internationalist approach that the UK Government take.