Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the GS1 report entitled, A scan of the benefits: the Scan4Safety evidence report, published in July 2020, what recent assessment has been made of the potential merits of providing funding to enable the expansion of Scan4Safety across the acute care sector in England.

The Scan4Safety pilot proved the benefits of the programme for patient safety, clinical productivity and operational efficiency. In February 2019, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care indicated that he wanted to see the programme taken up by the entire acute sector. Following the publication of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety review, and as the health and care system looks to take forward learnings on the back of the response to COVID-19, we are looking at a range of programmes, including Scan4Safety, to build on known successes. In the case of Scan4Safety this will also be considered as part of the response to the forthcoming Medicines and Medical Devices Bill.