Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
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 total value of personal protective equipment public procurement contracts in the financial year 2020-21 to date.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Contracting authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. These include a direct award under which authorities may enter into contracts without competing or advertising the requirement. The great majority of contracts placed by the Department were awarded under this route.
As of the beginning of November 2020, 937 contracts worth an estimated £17.8 billion have been awarded by the Department and its executive agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for a wide range of products and services including personal protective equipment (PPE), the Test and Trace initiative, ventilators, IT, logistics and medicines etc.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is Government policy to publish the (a) number and (b) type of personal protective equipment items procured through Government contracts.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to meeting the legal obligations and its own transparency guidelines in publishing Contract Award Notices (CANs) and the associated contracts for all the contracts it has entered into for the procurement of personal protective equipment in response to COVID-19.
To date, 89% of the CANs have now been published and over 50% of the contracts can be found on Contracts Finder at the following link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/
Delays in publishing this information have been due to the resources available within the Department given the vast increase in the volume of contracts that have had to be processed.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish a list of all companies who were contracted to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) as a result of the high-priority lane used to assess and process potential PPE procurement leads; if so, (1) when, and (2) to include (a) the name of the person who recommended the company for the process, (b) each contract awarded to each company, and (c) the value of each such contract; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We do not intend to publish the list of suppliers who were awarded personal protective equipment contracts after having had their offers reviewed with more urgency as there may be associated commercial implications.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to continue to invoke the “extreme urgency” provision of regulation 32(2)(c) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 for personal protective equipment supplies throughout the winter; and when they intend to revert to normal procurement arrangements, including competitive tender.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department assesses the market conditions for procuring supplies related to any procurement, including those relating to COVID-19, in accordance with procurement guidance and regulations. Where any procurement meets the tests for the use of Regulation 32(2)(c) for the direct award of a contract then that approached will be used. Where it does not, other approaches will be considered.
We have already ordered around 32 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE), of which over 20 billion is already in the United Kingdom. To ensure we can respond rapidly to demand surges in the future, the Department is building a strategic stockpile of PPE. This month, we will have a four-month stockpile of all COVID-19-critical PPE in place. The demand for PPE and the different factors affecting its supply are though kept constantly under review.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 26 October (HL8435), why the need to act with “extreme urgency” did not lead them to award a personal protective equipment (PPE) contract directly to the Chinese PPE manufacturers instead of to a company with no experience of an import on this scale, substantial losses in its most recently reported accounts, and significant net monetary liabilities at the time of the contract award.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government issued a public call to action to support the increased requirements of personal protective equipment (PPE). The aim was to reach these suppliers ie who had experience of supplying PPE and also those who had no prior experience but who had access to sources of PPE through their business contacts. This has resulted in 15,000 suppliers offering their help and support. All offers were prioritised based on volume, price, clinical acceptability and lead time – this is the time from an offer being accepted by the Department to the supplier delivering those items. These were often established private businesses whose net asset position is only one factor in evaluating their offer.
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 they used the services of ADM Group to procure personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic; if so, (1) what equipment they purchased, and (2) how much that equipment cost; and whether any such equipment was procured by that company from Hubei Haixin Protective Products Group Co., Ltd.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department holds no contract with ADM Group for the supply of personal protective equipment.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 20 October 2020 to Question 103473 on Coronavirus: Protective Clothing, how many eligible providers his Department defines as the (a) majority and (b) minority; if he will publish a timeframe for when all eligible providers will have their order limits on the PPE portal increased to meet all of their covid-19 PPE needs; and if he will make it his policy to reimburse the costs accrued to eligible providers as a result of those providers having to make alternative procurement arrangements in the event that adequate PPE is unavailable through that portal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The percentage of modelled demand that the Department is meeting through the current order limits on the personal protective equipment (PPE) portal is dependent on type and size of the customer. For the PPE items offered to primary care providers, the portal meets 100% of modelled demand. For adult social care providers, we are meeting 100% of modelled demand for residential care homes, and small and medium domiciliary care providers. We are currently working with the largest adult social providers to facilitate meeting 100% of their modelled demand, with this increase being phased over the next few weeks to ensure these large deliveries can be received. The Department keeps order limits under review based on the latest available public health guidance, COVID-19 demand modelling, analysis and provider feedback.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what due diligence and tendering process they followed when awarding a contract to Platform-14 for personal protective equipment (PPE); what was the total contracted sum; and what proportion of the PPE supplied was found to be usable by the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to COVID-19 was published on 18 March 2020. Authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. These include a direct award due to extreme urgency or the absence of competition. Under the regulation contracting authorities may enter into contracts without competing or advertising the requirement.
Suppliers will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. Contracts are awarded by the appropriate Departmental accounting officer in line with Departmental terms and conditions.
Several contracts have been awarded to Platform-14 for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) under the emergency regulations, with a total value of £276 million. Delivery is progressing for these PPE items. All items of PPE undergo a rigorous technical assurance process before they can be released for use.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
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 sign-off process for awarding contracts for personal protective equipment procurement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to COVID-19 was published on 18 March at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0120-responding-to-covid-19
Authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances, which includes supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. These include a direct contract award due to extreme urgency or the absence of competition.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 total value of personal protective equipment public procurement contracts in the financial year 2019-20; and what proportion of those contracts were fulfilled.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department and NHS Supply Chain placed contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE) totalling £129 million before 31 March 2020 to cover the additional requirement for PPE arising from COVID-19. Orders for £1.6 million were delivered before 31 March 2020, with the remainder not due for delivery until the 2020-21 financial year.