Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money his Department has spent on emergency contracts in respect of the covid-19 outbreak since the covid-19 lockdown began.

Guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to COVID-19 was published on 18 March. Authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. We have made it clear that authorities must continue to achieve value for money for taxpayers and use good commercial judgement in the awarding of contracts.

As of the beginning of June, 636 contracts have been awarded by the Department to private sector companies worth approximately £6.2 billion by the Department. The value is based on Purchase Orders raised which still have to be validated. Final agreed contract values will be published in the individual Contract Award Notices in the Official Journal of the European; and we publish certain information on Contracts Finder about contracts awarded.