Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on acquiring personal protective equipment from SMEs.

There isn't a historic minimum annual amount requirement to be part of the supply chain. The minimum requirements are for volume offered now, not volumes provided historically. Businesses must meet certain minimum financial criteria, must be able to demonstrate that it can supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at volume, and must pass various other checks and controls.

Manufacture of PPE must meet product safety legislation outlined in the guidance and appropriate health and safety technical specifications.

Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort by British industry to manufacture PPE including hand sanitiser. The Government has contracted with over 175 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the UK requires. The combined DIT, FCO and DHSC efforts have resulted in DHSC raising purchase orders for over 27.8 billion items of PPE; direct from new relationships in source countries, as well as through our trusted UK suppliers to the NHS, who themselves are using their global connections to help us. We have rapidly processed over 24,000 cases from over 15,000 suppliers to ensure they meet the safety and quality standards that our NHS staff need, as well as prioritising offers of larger volumes. We have so far actively engaged with over 99% of the companies that have offered PPE.