Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure the adequacy of supplies of personal protective equipment in the NHS during the covid-19 outbreak.

‘Personal protective equipment (PPE) strategy: stabilise and build resilience’, published on 28 September sets out how the Government has moved beyond the emergency COVID-19 response by stabilising the supply for PPE and building resilience in the supply chain. It also includes details about how Government is preparing for and managing the ongoing response to the pandemic alongside the usual seasonal pressures. The strategy is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-protective-equipment-ppe-strategy-stabilise-and-build-resilience

We are confident we have secured enough supply for this winter period and that we have the processes and logistics in place to distribute PPE to where it is needed. We have around 32 billion PPE items on order and this month we will have a four-month stockpile of all COVID-19 critical PPE in place, with a tremendous contribution from United Kingdom manufacturers.