Covid-19: Government’s Publication of Contracts Debate

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Department: Department of Health and Social Care

Covid-19: Government’s Publication of Contracts

Peter Gibson Excerpts
Tuesday 9th March 2021

(3 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Edward Argar Portrait Edward Argar
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What this Government have done, and did in the context of the issues under discussion in this specific question, is recognise the huge need for PPE during the pandemic last year and take every step they could to meet that need. They secured a large number of contracts, which delivered 8.8 billion pieces of PPE to date. I think that is called delivering.

Peter Gibson Portrait Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con) [V]
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More than 70% of PPE is now made in the UK, whereas it was less than 1% before the pandemic. When that is coupled with the expansion of more than 22,000 ventilators, we see that this Government have done an incredible job. Does my hon. Friend agree that the petty point-scoring of the Labour party is not what we need at this time of national emergency?

Edward Argar Portrait Edward Argar
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I have set out in my answers that what I think is most important for this country is that we work together— the public, private and voluntary sectors, and the Great British public—as we did, in this context. We have pulled together and done everything we can, including, as he alludes to, building that capacity for UK businesses to meet more of our need for PPE. That is a great success for those businesses and I pay tribute to them.