Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to review their guidance on hand sanitisers, and (2) to adopt the British Standards Institution kitemark for hand sanitiser.

The British Standards Institution Kitemark is a quality scheme that is available for certain industries and sectors where there is a market for it. Products marked with the Kitemark are assessed against a particular standard. The Government has no plans to develop a kitemark of minimum standards for hand sanitisers.

Hand sanitiser for use in clinical settings is treated as personal protective equipment and is therefore regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

As HSE guidance for the general public states, and in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidance, alcohol does not have to be ‘active ingredients’ to be effective in hand sanitiser. The WHO recommends that hand sanitiser should contain a minimum of 60% alcohol, but non-alcohol based sanitisers can also be effective when combined with other social distancing measures.