Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of single-use items used by the National Health Service.

As set out in the Delivering a Net Zero National Health Service report, published in October 2020, the NHS is committed to reducing its environmental impact, including by increasing the reuse and recycling of medical equipment. This report is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2022/07/B1728-delivering-a-net-zero-nhs-july-2022.pdf

In October 2024, the Government published the Design for Life roadmap, a new strategy to transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology products towards a functioning circular system by 2045. This roadmap is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-for-life-roadmap

The programme is expected to support the NHS by improving resilience, reducing waste, delivering cost savings, and achieving the NHS commitment to be net zero by 2045. The Design for Life roadmap provides examples of where NHS organisations are already achieving cost, waste, and carbon savings through reusing, remanufacturing, and recycling medical devices and equipment, in line with their local Green Plans.

In addition, NHS England collaborates with NHS Supply Chain to increase the availability of reusable products, and supports local NHS organisations to use more reusable medical devices and products, where it is safe to do so. For example, NHS England supported the Royal Surgical Colleges to develop the evidence-based Green Theatre Checklist to encourage sustainable theatre approaches, including promoting the use of reusable or remanufactured equipment, where appropriate. Further information on the checklist is available at the following link:

https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rcsed.ac.uk%2Fprofessional-support-development-resources%2Fenvironmental-sustainability-and-surgery%2Fgreen-theatre-

Additionally, NHS England is supporting innovation through the Small Business Research Initiative Healthcare programme, which has funded a project to support reuse of surgical textiles, with further information available at the following link:

https://sbrihealthcare.co.uk/impact-case-studies/case-studies/revolution-zero