Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish details of the contract agreed for the purchase of Single Use Theatre Protective Clothing by Collaborative Procurement Partnership LLP (CPP LLP) acting on behalf of Supply Chain Coordination Ltd (SCCL), which was valued at £1,774,730,734.19 and awarded on 1 April 2020.
Answered by Will Quince
This order for Single Use Theatre Protective Clothing was placed by Collaborative Procurement Partnership LLP, acting on behalf of Supply Chain Coordination Ltd (SCCL), using an existing SCCL framework agreement and the associated terms and conditions, so no new contracts were put in place.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the value for money of personal protective equipment procured under covid-19 emergency regulations.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bristol South on 6 February 2023 to Question 903412.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the value for money of personal protective equipment procured under covid-19 emergency regulations.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bristol South on 6 February 2023 to Question 903412.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what means of communication was used to inform of the existence of an expedited route for supplying personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak; which organisations and individuals were made aware of that route; and where any promotion of that route was published.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The High Priority appraisals mailbox was available across government and with Parliamentarians. Email correspondence with ministerial private offices and senior officials in the PPE sourcing programme provided notification that the mailbox had been set up and this was widely known.
The mailbox allowed MPs, ministers and senior officials to directly pass on offers of support which they had received from suppliers and individuals to a dedicated location for triage. The high priority team used the same criteria to assess offers as those used to assess any other offers of PPE. Referral to the mailbox was not a guarantee of a contract.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has taken recent action with ministerial colleagues to assess the extent to which contracts entered into by the UK government to procure PPE in the last five years represented value for money.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government Internal Audit Agency analysed the prices paid for individual products in the personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chain. This included 12 contracts where the Agency found a proportionate control environment which balanced the need to urgently procure PPE with the need to secure value for money.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much personal protective equipment has been procured by the Government under emergency procurement procedures in the last 6 months.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has not procured any personal protective equipment under emergency procurement procedures in the last six months.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the adequacy of personal protective equipment procured under emergency regulations.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Department for Health and Social Care has processes in place to review the quality of all PPE the Government has purchased and these processes determine whether products are suitable to be released to the frontline.
Published accounts show only around 3% of PPE purchased by DHSC – equivalent to around £670m – cannot be used because it is not fit for any purpose.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many officials in his Department are employed to oversee the storage of personal protective equipment (a) in the UK and (b) overseas.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The DfT Health and Safety teams do not oversee the storage of Personal Protective Equipment. If individuals require Personal Protective Equipment as part of their role then their line managers will provide Personal Protective Equipment to them through the Procurement team and contract in place with the clothing provider. This is the same model for Personal Protective Equipment used by all of the Departmental Agencies and arms-length bodies.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of money it has (a) already spent and (b) will spend in total, on defending legal challenges from the Good Law Project regarding the use of the high priority lane for personal protective equipment contracts.
Answered by Edward Argar
To date, the Department has spent approximately £2.12 million excluding VAT in direct costs. Following the court’s dismissal of the claim, the claimant was order to pay £250,000 inclusive of VAT towards the Department’s costs.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish a modern slavery statement covering their procurement of personal protective equipment since January 2020.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
A statement on modern slavery in the procurement of personal protective equipment is expected to be published by NHS Supply Chain in autumn 2022.