Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that charities operating in the medical sector are equipped with adequate personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department is taking steps to ensure that all staff operating in the medical sector can access adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and as such has delivered millions of items of personal protective equipment for staff at care homes, home care providers and hospices as well as to hospitals, ambulance trusts, general practitioner practices and pharmacists.

The needs of staff in frontline health services are covered in the United Kingdom-wide PPE Plan published on 10 April 2020. This provides clear guidance on who needs PPE and in what circumstances they need to use it, and how sufficient supplies will be secured to manage the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan can be accessed on the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-plan