Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many advance payments have been made to pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic by (1) total value, and (2) number of recipients.

Advanced payments have been used on a number of contracts awarded to suppliers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our approach has been to take some managed risk in order to secure supplies in an exceptional and globally highly competitive market. Contracts have break clauses in them, meaning if the company supplies faulty products or misses delivery dates, we can cancel the contracts and reclaim our money.

Over 1,000 purchase orders have now been raised with suppliers for the delivery of goods and services related to the COVID-19 pandemic. To provide a validated assessment of whether an advanced payment has been agreed or not for each of these orders would involve disproportionate cost.