Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government's PPE strategy will be published.
Answered by Will Quince
Imported personal protective equipment (PPE) is now provided by suppliers appointed to NHS Supply Chain’s Single Use PPE framework agreement. Suppliers are appointed following a competitive tender process to ensure value for money. Every product on this framework is assessed, involving work with regulators, safety standards agencies and national experts who agree the safety standards and requirements that products must meet in order to be used in the National Health Service.
From April 2022, responsibility for the operational management for retaining a pandemic stockpile of PPE transferred to NHS Supply Chain. Providers of PPE will be invited to become part of the procurement frameworks which NHS Supply Chain manages, and the current framework agreement includes a number of United Kingdom-based companies.
The Government welcomes commitment from UK-based companies to produce high-quality PPE. UK-based manufacturers are likely to be crucial in the event of another pandemic, particularly in the face of any global supply chain issues.
As of 31 March 2023, there were 12 million items of PPE remaining in storage in China. The remaining stock held in China is in categories of PPE for which the Department has sufficient stock in the UK to meet current demand, and the items were therefore surplus to requirements. In managing down the stock held in China we have made donations to other countries, but selling on surplus stock has not been financially viable for the Department. The remaining items now held in China are therefore being disposed of through incineration, with the aim of enabling an exit from this facility as soon as possible.
The Department wrote to the Public Accounts Committee on 16 March 2023 setting out strategic aims for the Department in relation to PPE, including future supply.
The letter is available at the following link:
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/34476/documents/189909/default/
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 is the (a) number and (b) value of contracts for personal protective equipment for which his Department (i) has brought and (ii) plans to bring legal action against the supplier due to quality issues; and how many of those suppliers have been excluded from taking part in public procurement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has continued to place quarterly update reports in the libraries of both Houses. These reports include information from the Department’s Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Contracts Dissolution Team and provide an update on progress made by the team, with the most recent being placed on 16 March 2023. The March update reported that the Department had reduced the number of contested PPE contracts from 176 to 60, with an associated value at risk reduced from £2.6 billion to £1.6 billion.
The Department has brought one legal action against one supplier for a contract to the value of £122 million. The other contested contracts are currently under investigation and may or may not result in legal proceedings. Procurement exclusion decisions are made on a case-by-case basis against the criteria set out in Regulation 57 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and are taken by contracting authorities when bidders have applied to participate in a procurement exercise.
The supplier against which legal action has been taken by the Department has not participated in any subsequent procurement exercises undertaken by the Department, and therefore no exclusion has been exercised.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2023 to Question 104233 on NHS: Protective Clothing, if he will list the (a) consultancy and (b) legal firms which were contracted as part of the personal protective equipment programme.
Answered by Will Quince
Consultancy firms contracted by the Department as part of the personal protective equipment programme are:
4C Associates Ltd;
Accenture UK Ltd;
Atamis Ltd;
Bramble Hub Ltd previously Bramble CC Ltd;
BSI Standard Ltd;
Chanzo Ltd;
Clarion Interpreting Ltd;
Deloitte;
Efficio Ltd;
Ernst And Young;
Global Connections (Scotland) Ltd;
Insight Executive Group;
Prestige Network Ltd;
Pricewaterhousecooper LLP;
The Kings Fund;
Velindre NHS Trust; and
McKinsey and Co Inc UK.
Legal firms contracted by the Department as part of the personal protective equipment programme are:
Burges Salmon;
TLT;
DAC Beachcrift; and
Pinsent Mason.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 23 December 2022 to Question 104233 on NHS: Protective Clothing, what percentage of the 176 personal protective equipment programme contracts that his Department are examining have had funds recovered as of 18 January 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department recently placed a note in the libraries of both Houses providing an update on progress made by the Contract Dissolution Team.
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 30 November 2022 to Question on NHS: Protective Clothing, whether his Department plans to take steps to ship these units of personal protective equipment to the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no current plans to do so.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the reasons for his decision to require people providing social contact within a care setting to wear face masks as published in updated guidance on 15 December 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Changes to the ‘COVID-19 supplement to the infection prevention and control resource for adult social care’ guidance were published on 15 December 2022 following consultation with the sector and a review of the latest public health advice. Guidance is constantly under review, with the latest update enabling providers to risk assess the proportionate use of masks while continuing to outline instances where face masks are recommended in line with public health advice. This means that in most situations, people providing social contact will not have to wear masks.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they will notify parliament about money returned to public funds by defaulting suppliers of personal protective equipment if individual settlements are protected by commercial secrecy rules.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In my remarks of 30 November 2022 in response to Baroness Smith of Basildon, Volume 825, column 1785, I committed to place further information on the money returned to the taxpayer to date in the Libraries of both Houses. While we cannot currently report on ongoing discussions with providers of personal protective equipment deemed as unsatisfactory, we will do so where these engagements have concluded. Officials are currently collating and validating this information and determining how Parliament can be regularly informed of progress in future.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to provide (1) transparency, and (2) accountability, concerning money returned to public funds by defaulting suppliers of personal protective equipment.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In my remarks of 30 November 2022 in response to Baroness Smith of Basildon, Volume 825, column 1785, I committed to place further information on the money returned to the taxpayer to date in the Libraries of both Houses. While we cannot currently report on ongoing discussions with providers of personal protective equipment deemed as unsatisfactory, we will do so where these engagements have concluded. Officials are currently collating and validating this information and determining how Parliament can be regularly informed of progress in future.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to report any money returned to public funds from suppliers of defective personal protective equipment
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In my remarks of 30 November 2022 in response to Baroness Smith of Basildon, Volume 825, column 1785, I committed to place further information on the money returned to the taxpayer to date in the Libraries of both Houses. While we cannot currently report on ongoing discussions with providers of personal protective equipment deemed as unsatisfactory, we will do so where these engagements have concluded. Officials are currently collating and validating this information and determining how Parliament can be regularly informed of progress in future.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what quality control methods were used by by his Department to help ensure that PPE procured from China met UK standards during the covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make an estimate of the proportion of PPE that did not meet the required standard for use in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department regularly reviews optimal storage solutions for personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensure value for money. The Department reviews the quality of all PPE purchased and to determine whether these products are suitable for use by frontline staff. Stock which has not passed initial quality assurance will be identified as not for use in medical settings. The Department undertakes a full visual assessment of all the stock held in China and in the United Kingdom.