Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Chief Medical Officer on the distribution of accessible, deaf-friendly face masks in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government recognise concerns about the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly face masks when it comes to people who lip read. The United Kingdom’s Government’s national PPE procurement team has been working extremely hard to source clear facemasks which comply with UK safety standards and have procured stocks of clear masks into health and social care settings, to support those who need to lip read. Distribution solutions for these are currently being confirmed.