Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2022 to Question 103559 on Protective Clothing: Coronavirus, how many other suppliers awarded contracts for personal protective equipment through the high-priority lane are in mediation with his Department as of 18 January 2022.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department is currently engaged in a mediation process with one other supplier.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any (1) person, or (2) organisation, will be censured for defaults involving the 47 VIP public contracts for facemasks and surgical gowns; and what steps they have taken in connection with defaults associated with their contract with PPE MedPro.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We have no plans to censure a single individual or organisation. The contract with PPE Medpro is considered commercially sensitive as the Department is currently engaged in a mediation process concerning their products, which involves confidentiality undertakings.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total value is of personal protective equipment procured from (a) Pestfix and (b) Ayanda during the covid-19 outbreak that has not been useable by the NHS; and what steps he is taking to recoup funds paid for that unusable equipment.
Answered by Edward Argar
Pestfix supplied personal protective equipment (PPE) with a value of £169,320,000 which is not currently available for release to the National Health Service due to technical and quality issues. The Department is currently engaged in mediation with Pestfix.
Ayanda supplied PPE with a value of £145,701,240 which is not currently available for release to the NHS due to technical and quality issues. The Department is undertaking a further detailed technical analysis of the product and will consider any commercial options available following conclusion of that review.
Departmental contracts require that it undertakes mediation with its suppliers prior to the commencement of formal legal action, to establish if disputes can be resolved without recourse to litigation.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2021 to Question 75897, which of the products supplied by Liaoning Zhongqiao Overseas Exchange Co Ltd were repurposed for use outside health and care settings; what the total value was of those products; and what value was recouped through resale.
Answered by Edward Argar
Liaoning Zhonggiao Overseas Exchange Co Ltd were contracted to provide visors and goggles. It is likely that some goggles will be repurposed for use outside health and care settings. These products are currently being reviewed before re-distribution therefore the information requested on the total value and the amount recouped is not yet available.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the level of covid-19 infection risk from non-mask wearing in the hospitality sector; and what steps he plans to take to manage that risk.
Answered by Maggie Throup
No estimate has been made. However, in deciding whether to mandate the wearing of face coverings in hospitality settings, the Government considered health, economic, societal and practical issues and concluded that it was impractical to require people to remove their face covering in settings primarily used for eating and drinking. To mitigate this risk, we continue to recommend that people wear face coverings in indoor settings, even where not mandated and to receive their primary or booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2022 to Question 87696 on Protective Clothing: Coronavirus, if he will list the number of sites where unused personal protective equipment is being stored, by county.
Answered by Edward Argar
The information requested is shown in the following table.
Location | Number of facilities |
Durham | 3 |
Essex | 2 |
Leicestershire | 4 |
Greater Manchester | 1 |
Staffordshire | 1 |
Stirlingshire | 1 |
South Yorkshire | 2 |
Suffolk | 5 |
Warwickshire | 1 |
West Yorkshire | 2 |
Shanghai | 1 |
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2021 to Question 81017 on Coronavirus: Protective Clothing, on what grounds this information has been deemed to be commercially sensitive.
Answered by Edward Argar
The information is considered commercially sensitive as the Department is currently engaged in a mediation process with PPE Medpro concerning their products, which involves confidentiality undertakings.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 11 November 2020, Official Report, column 1022, regarding the production of PPE in the UK, what was the percentage of PPE produced in the UK in the most recent month for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar
This information is not available in the format requested. However, of 36.4 billion items ordered by 6 December 2021, 3.9 billion were ordered from United Kingdom manufacturers.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
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 (PPE) the Government has purchased that has not been used as a result of being (a) unwanted and (b) unusable since 1 January 2020; what the total cost is of that PPE; and what the daily cost is of storing that PPE.
Answered by Edward Argar
The personal protective equipment (PPE) programme has ordered over 36.4 billion items since March 2020. Of this, approximately 3.4 billion units are currently identified as potential excess stock. The estimated purchase price for those items is £2.2 billion.
In addition, a total of 6.96 billion items are not currently provided to frontline services. This can be for a variety of reasons, including new stock that has not yet cleared assurance processes or where a different product is preferred. Of these, 1.2 billion items are deemed to be not fit for use. The purchase price for these items was £458 million. Data on the specific storage costs is not held in the format requested. However, on 13 December 2021 weekly storage costs for all stock was £4.5 million.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the total value of personal protective equipment that was procured during the covid-19 outbreak but expired before use.
Answered by Edward Argar
There are approximately 303 million items of personal protective equipment which have passed their estimated expiry date at a total purchase cost of £299 million.
However, in many cases recorded expiry dates refer to the original documentation or assumed life of the product when it was delivered. We are currently exploring whether these expiry dates can be extended to allow the products to be used.