Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many contracts to source personal protective equipment from (a) the UK and (b) overseas have been awarded to companies with no previous commercial relationship with the public sector.

Guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to COVID-19 was published on 18 March at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0120-responding-to-covid-19

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.

Over 1,000 contracts have been awarded to suppliers for COVID-19 related work, the majority through a direct award. There is no single consideration such as previous experience or where a company is based as to whether a supplier is added to the supply chain. The supplier will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. Contracts include clauses for contract management to assess performance and value for money throughout the lifetime of the contract.