Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to prevent competition for supplies of personal protective equipment (a) between (i) individuals, (ii) hospitals and (iii) surgeries and (b) between (A) local and (B) national supply.

A new, dedicated unit has been set up to focus on securing supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). It is working to ensure that PPE matches specification, supply chains are secure, fraud is mitigated and the best value for money is achieved in a high demand market.

This is enabling us to coordinate the procurement of PPE through an open source approach.