Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have consulted companies engaged in forensic analysis of products to improve the NHS supply chain.

Section 47 of the Health and Social Care Act 2022 mandated my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to conduct a review of risks associated with slavery and human trafficking in National Health Service supply chains, with an emphasis on cotton-based products. The report was laid in Parliament on 14 December 2023.

The supply chain mapping undertaken for the purpose of the review was identified as inappropriate for the size and range of the products supplied to the NHS, requiring extensive effort by the buyers and suppliers to collect information, that was still insufficient to affect change. Many of the suppliers identified as having high risk supply chains are based in the United Kingdom, however their supply chains are global.

In response to the findings, the review made a series of recommendations, outlined in detail in the publication. Upcoming regulations under Section 12ZC of the NHS Act 2006 will further aid the NHS in assessing and mitigating modern slavery risks in individual procurements, alongside the introduction of a consistent risk assessment embedded into the health family’s e-commerce system, Atamis.