Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what response there has been to the Prime Minister's request for manufacturers to develop ventilators for the NHS; and how many they expect to be produced.

Work preparing the National Health Service has been ongoing and we have already nearly doubled ventilator capacity. New and existing suppliers are being asked to build as many as they can. The Prime Minister has issued a call to United Kingdom industry to produce additional ventilators and the Department asked appropriate potential manufacturers on 13 March to come forward with proposals for new ventilation machines. Around a dozen potential prototypes have now been presented to the Department which we are currently pursuing.