Protective Clothing: Disease Control

(asked on 29th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many respirator masks were held in the pandemic stockpile on 31 December of each of the last 10 years.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 13th May 2020

The Department’s advisory Committee for New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) makes recommendations to the Government on what medicines and clinical consumables should be stockpiled for pandemic influenza preparedness including relevant scientific information that is used for estimating target stock levels.

NERVTAG has recommended the stockpiling of (amongst other products) FFP3 respirators, eye protection, aprons and gloves. Data on the number of respirator masks, eye protection, aprons and gloves are not published in the format requested.

Surgical gowns are not currently part of the pandemic stockpile. Public Health England is currently implementing a commission to add these items to the stockpile.

There are no recommendations from NERVTAG to stockpile swabs.

Reticulating Splines