Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many orders for personal protective equipment through contracts awarded by his Department are currently unfulfilled.

Over 32 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been ordered overall from United Kingdom-based manufacturers and international partners of which over 20 billion is already in the UK. We have a robust process which ensures that orders are of high quality standard, meet commercial due diligence and are checked for risk and fraud. All contracts are monitored for the delivery and safe receipt of the PPE and any compliance issues are followed up, the timings of which will vary according to when the contract was let.

All contracts have clauses in them that allow the Department to seek redress if the company supplies faulty products or misses delivery dates.