Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that all care workers have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment in (a) Wolverhampton South West constituency and (b) across the UK.

Across the United Kingdom, everybody working on the frontline deserves to have the equipment they need to do their job safely. A large number of Government departments are working together to make sure that happens. Amid unprecedented global pressures on supply chains over 3.5 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been delivered to frontline workers thanks to the efforts of the Government, the National Health Service, industry and the armed forces to massively scale up distribution networks.

We have significantly strengthened and diversified our supply chains for PPE – looking to new suppliers abroad as well as boosting our domestic manufacturing capability. This has helped to build resilience into the future. We have moved from an emergency situation a few months ago to a stable position, which allows us to prepare for any second spike or a new wave in the autumn or winter.