Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the New and Emerging Respiratory Threats Advisory Group recommendation in June 2019 on surgical gowns was shared with the Welsh Government.

The recommendations of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) on personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement are publicly available and can be accessed online.

The contents of the pandemic influenza stockpile were based on the recommendations of NERVTAG. Following advice from the NERVTAG committee on the inclusion of gowns in the stockpile, the NERVTAG sub-committee for PPE was asked to confirm the specification (sterile non/sterile) for the market analysis. This was received by Public Health England in November 2019 and the market analysis was being finalised prior to seeking policy and financial approval from the Department, Welsh Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Assembly. Once approval was received the procurement exercise would have commenced in early 2020. However, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak the focus shifted to procuring gowns for immediate distribution to the National Health Service and social care.