Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
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 Paymaster General of 5 January 2022, Official Report, column 122, if he will list the more than 30 British-based companies who have signed contracts to provide 3.9 billion items of PPE including information on (a) the number and percentage of PPE items provided by each company and (b) the monetary value of each contract.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Department has signed contracts with 31 United Kingdom-based companies for 3.9 billion units of personal protective equipment (PPE), of which 2.5 billion units have been delivered so far. Currently, 247 million items are yet to be manufactured, although these orders are scheduled to be delivered by the end of March 2022. The 3.9 billion items represent 10.7% of all items ordered during the pandemic.
The following table shows the companies involved in the UK Make programme. Contracts have been signed with two further UK-based companies. However, as some items are not manufactured in the UK, these products are not included in the 3.9 billion total.
Supplier | Number of items | Total value | Percentage of all UK Make items |
Alpha Solway (Globus) | 100,300,000 | £187,419,000 | 2.552% |
Blue Tree Group | 352,180,000 | £64,096,760 | 8.959% |
Bolle Brands UK | 9,751,688 | £39,006,750 | 0.248% |
Burberry | 4,000,000 | £660,000 | 0.102% |
Burberry | 50,000 | £573,000 | 0.001% |
Don & Low | 216,000,000 | £41,040,000 | 5.495% |
Dräger | 50,000,000 | £87,250,000 | 1.272% |
Dtr Medical Ltd | 1,300,000 | £6,500,000 | 0.033% |
Duraweld Ltd | 5,200,000 | £4,212,000 | 0.132% |
Elite Plastics | 180,000,000 | £9,900,000 | 4.579% |
Eumar Technology | 105,000,000 | £19,950,000 | 2.671% |
Honeywell | 70,285,000 | £57,939,250 | 1.788% |
I Love Cosmetics (Expac) | 6,971,328 | £15,964,341 | 0.177% |
Kingsbury Press | 13,000,000 | £12,870,000 | 0.331% |
L J A Miers And Company Ltd | 13,000,000 | £14,950,000 | 0.331% |
Lincoln Polythene | 1,038,250,000 | £46,721,250 | 26.412% |
McDonald & Taylor | 1,155,354 | £5,661,235 | 0.029% |
Medicom | 540,000,000 | £86,400,000 | 13.737% |
Medicom | 122,900,000 | £221,220,000 | 3.126% |
Numatic International Ltd | 390,000 | £975,000 | 0.010% |
PFF Packaging | 360,023,000 | £18,361,173 | 9.159% |
Photocentric Ltd | 7,670,000 | £15,340,000 | 0.195% |
Polystar Plastics | 553,400,000 | £32,037,228 | 14.078% |
Potter & Moore | 4,950,000 | £8,167,500 | 0.126% |
Private White | 15,300,000 | £2,448,000 | 0.389% |
Private White | 1,080,070 | £7,120,921 | 0.027% |
Ramfoam Limited | 71,100,000 | £149,310,000 | 1.809% |
Redwood | 379,460 | £2,078,682 | 0.010% |
Siva Plastics | 60,000,000 | £6,400,000 | 1.526% |
Staeger Clear Packaging Ltd | 24,000,000 | £14,640,000 | 0.611% |
Survitec | 1,920,000 | £30,541,509 | 0.049% |
The Royal Mint Ltd | 1,404,000 | £8,424,000 | 0.036% |
Total | 3,930,959,900 | £1,218,177,598 | 100% |
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) number and (b) proportion of PPE items purchased or procured by the Government are that have been manufactured by UK based companies.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government has ordered 3.9 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) from United Kingdom manufacturers. This represents 10.7% of all PPE ordered since the start of the pandemic. UK manufacturers have the capacity currently to meet the estimated future demand for PPE in the UK, for all categories except gloves.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the commitment by the Prime Minister in October 2020 to make 70 per cent of PPE in the UK, how much and what proportion of PPE is being made in the UK; and how much and what proportion of Government spending on PPE is on PPE made in the UK.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
‘Personal protective equipment (PPE) strategy: stabilise and build resilience’, published in September 2020, committed to ensure that for the following winter, the supply of United Kingdom manufactured PPE would be sufficient to meet 70% of demand for all categories, except gloves. In that period, UK manufactured goods met 82% of demand. The Department has ordered over 36 billion items of PPE, of which 3.9 billion or approximately 11%, was ordered from UK manufacturers. The total cost was £14.4 billion, of which £1.3 billion or 9%, was for orders with UK manufacturers.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the investigation by BBC News, published on 28 July, which found that one million masks manufactured in China and supplied to the NHS as high grade did not meet the correct level of protection, (2) how fake personal protective equipment (PPE) entered the UK supply chain, (3) the number of (a) staff, and (b) patients, that were given faulty PPE, (4) the risk of exposure to COVID-19 as a result of using such faulty PPE, (5) the amount of money that government departments have spent on faulty PPE, and (6) the options for seeking restitution and compensation from the suppliers of faulty PPE.
Answered by Lord Bethell
For all personal protective equipment (PPE), certification is checked through a technical assurance process before the products are released for distribution. Following information received from the National Health Service in February, we quarantined and recalled the affected products and reviewed the technical certification.
As part of our investigation, we commissioned the British Standards Institution to test the masks. While the findings stated the affected masks failed to meet to FFP3 requirements, they passed all the testing requirements for an FFP2 respirator. The World Health Organization recommends the use of N95 or FFP2 respirators for health workers performing aerosol-generating procedures, wearers should have been afforded protection. These masks are not recommended to be worn by patients. We have commissioned an independent root cause analysis investigation and we await the outcome.
As of 10 June, 1.9 billion items of stock were in the ‘do not supply’ category. This is equivalent to 6.2% of purchased volume with an estimated value of £2.8 billion. We are considering options to repurpose and recycle items in this category which ensures safety and value for money. Discussions with suppliers are ongoing.
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, what the value is of personal protective equipment purchased by the NHS in 2021 to date; and how much of that equipment was manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill
In financial year 2021/22, the total spend on personal protective equipment (PPE) to date is £330.5million. Of this, spend on PPE manufactured in the United Kingdom totals £96.2M.
The Department created the dedicated UK Make programme to increase domestic production. UK Make contracted with manufacturers in the UK able to mobilise and produce PPE for the frontline. However, not all UK-based manufacturers which provided PPE to healthcare settings were part of this programme.
The PPE programme raised contracts with 31 UK manufacturers and those contracts were all contracted by July 2020. We continue to receive goods purchased under those contracts and by 1 December 2020 inbound supply of UK manufactured PPE was sufficient to meet 82% of demand for PPE over the peak pandemic period of December to February, across all items except gloves.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 15 March 2021 to Question 165584, if he will publish by (a) constituency and (b) volume where that personal protective equipment was manufactured.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We do not hold collated and validated data on the location within the United Kingdom where personal protective equipment (PPE) was manufactured. We have published the overall volume of PPE sourced from UK manufacturing for the three months from 1 December 2020 which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of personal protective equipment supplied to the NHS has been manufactured in the UK since 1 September 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government’s personal protective equipment (PPE) strategy stated that by 1 December 2020, United Kingdom manufacturers would be able to provide 70% of the PPE we expected to use in England through the winter, except gloves. That commitment was met and exceeded. The volume of UK manufactured PPE supplied in the three months from 1 December 2020 to 28 February 2021 was sufficient to meet 82% of the amount required over that period.
Data prior to December 2020 is not available in a fully validated form.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has plans to classify scrubs as personal protective equipment.
Answered by Paul Scully
Scrubs such as those for use in health care environments do not fall within the definition of personal protective equipment (PPE) set out in the PPE Regulation 2016/425. There are no plans to change the scope of products which fall in the definition. Scrubs are designed to promote a hygienic environment for patients and have not been manufactured to meet the essential health and safety requirements necessary for PPE. Guidance for PPE within the health and care settings can be found within the UK Infection Prevention and Control guidance which is agreed by the UK’s four chief Medical and Nursing Officers and is published by Public Health England.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of personal protective equipment purchased by the Govenrment was manufactured in the UK in each month in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government’s personal protective equipment (PPE) strategy published in September said that by 1 December 2020, United Kingdom manufacturers would be able to provide 70% of the PPE we expected to use in England through the winter, for all items except gloves. That commitment was met and exceeded. The volume of UK manufactured PPE supplied in the three months from 1 December 2020 to 28 February 2021 was sufficient to meet 82% of the amount needed over that time period. Data prior to December is not available in a fully validated form.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer to Question 55014, what estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) eye protection visors and (b) other items of personal protective equipment being supplied to NHS England which have been manufactured in the UK; and if he will take steps to increase the quantity of PPE manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The United Kingdom manufacturing response to the crisis has been a significant achievement with, on average, UK-based supply anticipated to meet 70% of forecasted demand in England in December for all categories of personal protective equipment (PPE) excluding gloves. We are considering the best way to incentivise and sustain this high level of UK PPE manufacture.
PPE will continue to be procured nationally, funded and overseen by the Department, until March 2021 at the earliest. National Health Service organisations should continue to utilise national reserves. The Department’s national reserves are being expanded to cover months of supply in preparation for the winter period, including building supply from UK manufacturing sites. The Department does not expect additional local procurement or locally co-ordinated manufacture of equipment to be necessary to meet demand for PPE items and therefore no funding is available outside of system funding envelopes.