Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the delays faced by those ordering essential disability equipment from overseas.

No such assessment has been made. At this time the Department is not centrally managing any shortages related to delayed overseas orders of disability equipment. We would encourage any specific detail of supply issues to be shared with the Department.

The Department's National Supply Disruption Response team works with system partners to help mitigate supply issues, including through the coordination of mutual aid, identifying alternative products or clinical practices, regulatory easements, and/or use of the Express Freight Service which can provide bespoke global logistics services in the event of critical supply disruption.