Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the British companies manufacturing personal protective equipment for European countries on the production of that equipment for the UK.

We have allowed personal protective equipment (PPE) exports by private companies where such exports do not undermine the level of PPE within the United Kingdom, and no PPE has been issued from pandemic supplies to other countries.

Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort by British industry to manufacture PPE. The Government is currently in contact with over 350 potential UK manufacturers and has signed contracts to manufacture over 2 billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers. More new manufacturers are expected to commit to producing PPE in the coming weeks.