Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2022 to Question 121768 on Protective Clothing: Finance, in which sub-category of the total £8.7bn write down reported in the Department's annual accounts for 2020-21 were the items of PPE supplied by Ayanda and Pestfix included.

The £8.7 billion of inventory impairment reported in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21 includes:

- £673 million relating to items assessed as not being suitable for any use - the only element of the impairment considered a loss;

- £2,581 million for items not suitable for use within the health and social care sector which may be suitable for other uses and therefore held for future sale or donation;

- £4,701 million reflecting the impairment recognised as a result of fluctuations in the market price of personal protective equipment between the point of purchase and the balance sheet date; and

- £750 million relating to inventory which has an expiry date prior to the expected usage date and is therefore held for resale or donation.

The Department is unable to provide information on which of these categories products supplied by individual contracts were attributed to as this is commercially sensitive.