Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of supplies of personal protective equipment in the event that the covid-19 reproduction (R) rate rises above 1.

We have massively expanded our supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) from overseas and domestically. We have contracted with over 100 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the United Kingdom requires. We are continuing to sign further deals to make our position more secure. We recently secured a further 3.7 billion gloves to help meet the expected demand and we are building up UK manufacturing capability. We have signed contracts for over 2 billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers, including aprons, facemasks, visors and gowns. We are confident in the stocks and sources of supply of PPE to meet the needs of health and social care over the next 7 and 90 days.