Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Chancellor's summer economic update of 8 July 2020, how much of the £1 billion allocated to procure additional ventilators to support the NHS has been allocated to indemnify designers and manufacturers of Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator Systems for (a) claims relating to infringement of third-party intellectual property rights and (b) product liability claims resulting from defective equipment.

The Government granted indemnities to some participants in the Ventilator Challenge, assuming liability for some of the product and intellectual property risks involved in manufacturing ventilators to a much shorter timescale than usual and with significantly different supply chains. This ensured machines were made available for use in the National Health Service to treat patients much more quickly than they otherwise would have been. To date there have been no claims against these indemnities and therefore no costs incurred to the Government in relation to them.