Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) quantity and (b) value was of healthcare personal protective equipment (i) exported from and (ii) imported to the UK in 2020.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are responsible for the collection and publication of data on UK imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC release this information monthly, as a National Statistic: the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics.

There is aggregated trade data available for personal protective equipment (PPE) goods and for the periods requested on HMRC’s uktradeinfo.com website, under ‘Build your own data tables’. The site also contains a ‘Help’ function with information on how to extract trade data.

To search for trade data relating to any particular good, the commodity code of that good is required. HMRC maintain a list of COVID-19 products, including PPE goods, and their commodity codes on GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/890809/COVID-19_commodity_codes.csv/preview.

However, the trade data collected may not allow PPE goods classified under a particular commodity code to be distinguished from any non-PPE goods classified under that same commodity code.