Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans are in place to restock personal protective equipment stockpiles before the end of 2020.

We are working to expand the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) from overseas and improve domestic manufacturing capability. We are expanding and improving the logistics network for delivering to the front line.

Since 25 February we have delivered over 2.3 billion items of PPE across the health and social care system within England. Almost 30 billion items of PPE have been ordered from United Kingdom-based manufacturers and international partners to provide a continuous supply in the coming months.

We continue to model future demand for PPE to cover a range of possible scenarios, working closely with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies to ensure it is underpinned by the latest science. We are confident in the stocks and sources of supply of PPE to meet the needs of health and social care over the next seven and 90 days and are increasingly looking further ahead. We have moved from an emergency situation a few months ago to a stable situation which allows us to prepare with resilience for any second spike or a new wave in the autumn or winter.

We are making sure our stockpile is ready for any future wave of the pandemic by ensuring we use lessons learnt and are informed by expert scientific advice.