Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether applications to the Government's personal protective equipment procurement portal established in March 2020 were managed by (a) Government officials or (b) external consultants.

Over 15,000 suppliers approached the National Sourcing team via the online portals. We do not intend to publish a list of these suppliers as the Department has to consider their position in terms of the recognition that disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position, their revenue and ability to obtain future contracts. The Department takes its transparency requirements very seriously and has now published the majority of the Contract Award Notices and contracts for the successful suppliers which were awarded contracts.

Experienced external consultants were involved in supporting the cross-Government team’s procurement of personal protective equipment, working under the management and supervision of officials.