Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse is of storing PPE unsuitable for NHS use; and which companies are contracted to provide such storage services.

The Department holds all pertinent contractual detail on those companies who provided personal protective equipment (PPE) products that were considered unsuitable for use. Between 1 November 2023 and 30 September 2024, approximately 432,700 pallets of unusable PPE have been disposed of.

It currently costs approximately £200,000 per week to store PPE unsuitable for National Health Service use. The figure is dynamic because the stock is reducing. NHS Supply Chain manages PPE product supply and logistics and they lease storage for PPE from the following companies GXO and Visku (Bis Henderson).

A programme of work is underway to reduce our excess stock. This work will significantly reduce the cost of our storage network and is due to be complete by January 2025 through sales, donations, recycling, and energy from waste.