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 Coronavirus: Protective Clothing, whether the personal protective equipment (PPE) provided by (a) Pestfix and (b) Ayanda which is not currently available for release to the NHS as a result of technical and quality issues was included in the £0.67 billion of PPE which cannot be used or the £2.6 billion of PPE which is not suitable for use within the health and social care sector, reported in his Department's annual report and accounts.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not currently hold the information in the format required.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the cost of personal protective equipment purchased by the NHS in 2021; and how much and what proportion of that equipment was manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The vast majority of personal protective equipment was supplied under contracts agreed in 2020, with deliveries into 2021 and 2022. Payments authorised in 2021 show a total of 1.36 billion items at a purchase price of £795 million. Of those, 846 million items or 62% were supplied by United Kingdom manufacturers at a purchase price of £704 million.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to purchase UK-made biodegradable PPE products as opposed to single use plastic products.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Department has investigated biodegradable personal protective equipment (PPE) from United Kingdom and overseas suppliers. However, waste stream channels from health and social care settings do not facilitate the separation of these products, unless they have been used for non-healthcare functions, such as catering. Most biodegradable products are single use and contribute to the environmental impacts from excessive manufacture, transportation and storage. Therefore, biodegradable products are not the most effective solution for single use health care infected PPE. The Department is exploring reusable products for Type IIR masks, eye protection and transparent masks.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their response to the Forty-Second report of the Public Accounts Committee 2019–21 on 28 April, what steps they will take to incentivise the NHS Supply Chain to buy PPE which is made in the UK.
Answered by Lord Kamall
NHS Supply Chain is working with 30 United Kingdom manufacturers to build resilience within the manufacture of personal protective equipment. This also includes addressing innovation, sustainability and fit testing of masks for the National Health Service and social care.
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 progress has been made in securing a supplier for medical examination gloves and surgical gloves under tender, reference 269071/982217, published on 23 July 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The tender remains under evaluation by NHS Supply Chain Coordination Limited.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
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 3 June 2021 to Question 301 on Protective Clothing: Manufacturing Industries, what value of personal protective equipment (PPE) was procured from each of those companies; and what proportion each of those values comprise of the total amount of value of PPE procured by his Department from all sources since 1 October 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All contracts, including those for UK Make, are publicly available on contracts finder. The precise values for individual contracts may be subject to revision and approved signed contract variation as the contract proceeds and to date, available data shows that the largest UK Make contract is less than 2% of the total of all contracts across the programme.
The Department has contracted with over 30 manufacturers in the United Kingdom for around 3.9 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) and this represents approximately 12% of the total PPE ordered. The total percentage value of overall UK Make COVID-19 PPE contracts is 8.9%.
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, with reference to NHS Supply Chain’s response of 29 June 2021 to FOI Request SCCL-FOI-2021-063, which of the 16 companies set out in that FOI response that supply the NHS with rubber gloves from Malaysia receive rubber glove supplies from (a) Top Glove, (b) Supermax, (c) Brightway Holdings, (d) WRP, (e) Ansell, (f) Kossan and (g) Hartalega.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has procured rubber gloves to supply the National Health Service from the following suppliers on the NHS Supply Chain Framework, sourced from the providers in the following table.
Suppliers | Sources |
Ansell Healthcare Europe | Ansell |
Medicare Products | Kossan |
Medline Industries Ltd | Hartelega |
Supermax | Supermax |
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 his most recent estimate is of the total number of (a) items of personal protective equipment, (b) face masks and (c) surgical gowns procured during the covid-19 outbreak which could not be used by the NHS as a result of them failing to meet appropriate standards of safety; and what the cost involved in each case was.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The data is not available in the format requested.
The Department is taking steps such as repurposing or recycling items and seeking to recover costs in instances where contracts have resulted in the supply of substandard personal protective equipment.
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, whether he is planning to maintain the current level of supply of personal protection equipment to health and care settings after 19 July 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to providing free personal protective equipment to health and social care settings until the end of March 2022.
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 steps he is taking to ensure that all NHS and Social Care staff are provided with the PPE they require for the next phase of the covid-19 outbreak and continue with current infection control measures.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are ensuring many millions of additional personal protective equipment (PPE) items reach those on the frontline through the PPE portal. The order limits on the portal have increased so that primary and social care providers will be able to meet their PPE needs, free of charge until the end of March 2022.
To further build resilience, we have significantly increased manufacturing, signing contracts for almost 3.9 billion items of PPE with over 30 United Kingdom based companies.