Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will provide hospital and social care maintenance workers, such as electricians and plumbers, with personal protective equipment to prevent them contributing to the spread of COVID-19.

Government guidance now requires social distancing and to only work in the same location if it is absolutely essential. Tradespeople should therefore be practising social distancing where possible.

The National Health Service is issuing guidance regularly to all parts of the health service on infection prevention and personal protective equipment (PPE). Regularly updated guidance is available online on GOV.UK.

This guidance includes advice on how to keep staff and patients safe and we would expect any healthcare organisation to inform visiting tradespeople of any specific extra measures that need to be taken in the location they are visiting.

People working in health and care settings should be supplied with any PPE equipment that is clinically required for the job that they are doing or the setting that they are in. Regularly updated guidance is available online on GOV.UK.