Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government is engaged in bidding to secure (a) personal protective equipment and (b) testing equipment for use in the UK.

We have set up a cross-Government personal protective equipment (PPE) sourcing unit to secure new supply lines from across the world and a call to industry has been issued to companies at home to manufacture and supply additional PPE at scale. There has been limited United Kingdom manufacture of PPE to date and so new supply channels for materials to make PPE have been sourced at pace in order to enable new manufacturing to commence.

On testing equipment, there is a clear and unprecedented demand for testing equipment and suppliers are ramping up their capacity as quickly as possible. We are working closely with industry to obtain maximum possible supplies for the UK and with the scientific community to explore new options for test kits.