Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the UK is exporting fabric for use in personal protective equipment.

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.

However, the trade data collected does not enable HMRC to determine the ultimate end use of exported goods, and so cannot be used to confirm whether fabric is exported for use in personal protective equipment.

There is aggregated trade data available for fabrics 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.

Trade data relating to the value of textiles and textile articles, including fabrics, can be searched for using commodity codes in chapters 50 to 63 of the Trade Tariff: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/sections.