Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to streamline NHS procurement processes for personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Lord Deighton, formerly Chief Executive of London 2012 Olympics, has been appointed to lead on our domestic efforts to increase the supply of PPE. Contracts have been signed for over 3 billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers, including facemasks, visors, gowns and aprons, ensuring we build and maintain a domestic base for the future.
We are identifying personal protective equipment (PPE) suppliers from across the globe to meet the increasing demand for a growing list of PPE products. As part of this effort, we have seconded expert procurement professionals from NHS Supply Chain to work with military planners and a cross-Government team from the Government Commercial Function.
Additionally, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) teams across the world have ensured local sources are able to deliver the products required, as well as working with the central teams to secure inbound logistics and freight operations at speed. The Department for Trade has also stood up a global network to coordinate the PPE sourcing augmenting the FCO's work so that faster fulfilment can be delivered.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, from which countries of origin the NHS imports personal protective equipment; and what due diligence checks are carried out to ensure the supply chain for those products complies with international law.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is working around the clock to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) and get the vital equipment and protection we need to the frontline. We have set up a cross-Government PPE sourcing unit to secure new supply lines from across the world and published rigorous standards against which we will buy. We have sourced and received medical supplies from a range of countries, including: China, Malaysia, Thailand, US, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and Turkey
Our procurement process abides by strict quality control measures, often including the physical checking of stock and proof that the equipment conforms to stringent safety regulations. In our Supplier Code of Conduct it states that suppliers shall comply with all laws applicable to its business.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse has been of procuring personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak; how many items of each type of equipment has been procured; and what proportion of that equipment has been sourced (a) in the UK and (b) from overseas.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To date contracts worth approximately £9 billion have been awarded for personal protective equipment (PPE). The value is based on purchase orders raised which still have to be validated.
Internationally, orders for over 30.8 billion items of PPE have been raised, including 7,444 ventilators, 557 million gowns; over 8.1 billion masks; 1.4 billion items of face protection; 13.7 billion gloves and 6.9 billion aprons (purchase order stats as of 10 July), with thanks to joint working across the Department for International Trade, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department of Health and Social Care and Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many items of personal protective equipment have been delivered as part of Government's Clipper scheme since 1 May 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In partnership with the e-commerce industry, we designed a new online portal to help primary care and small social care providers who have been under-represented in terms of access to wholesalers. We have now invited over 21,000 general practitioners and small adult social care providers to register and order through the Clipper scheme, also known as the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Portal.
As of Wednesday 15 July, approximately 28 million items of PPE have been delivered via the PPE Portal, with nearly 40,000 total orders having been made.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to maximise opportunities for UK-based companies to fulfil orders of personal protective equipment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort to unleash the potential of British industry to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) for the health and social care sectors. This will maximise opportunities for United Kingdom-based companies to fulfil orders of PPE.
Almost 28 billion items of PPE have been ordered overall from UK-based manufacturers and international partners to provide a continuous supply in the coming months. More than 30 deals have been struck with companies through the Make initiative to manufacture and deliver PPE in the UK. We are also working with over 175 new suppliers to deliver at the scale and pace the UK requires. Around 20% of all PPE will be manufactured in the UK by the end of the year.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money from the public purse has been spent with small and medium-sized businesses in the procurement of personal protective equipment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has a small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) Action Plan to achieve its SME target of 23% of procurement spend going to SMEs by March 2022. The calculation and validation process for the proportion of spend on SMEs across different procurement categories for each closed financial year is usually undertaken and reported on in August of the following financial year, so information on this spend is not yet available for 2019/20.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate the Government has made of the number of items of personal protective equipment that will be procured for use in the UK by the end of April.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The combined DIT, FCO and DHSC efforts have resulted in DHSC ordering over 28.7 billion items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), direct from new relationships with suppliers in source countries; and to build up UK manufacturing this includes signed contracts to manufacture over 2 billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers.
The Government has rapidly processed over 24,000 cases from over 15,000 suppliers to ensure they meet the safety and quality standards that our NHS staff need, as well as prioritising offers of larger volumes. The Government has so far actively engaged with over 99% of the companies that have offered PPE and has contracted with over 175 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the UK requires.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Bethell on 23 April (HL Deb, col 90), whether their approach to personal protective equipment procurement remains one of collaboration with local initiatives following the report in the Financial Times on 4 May that procurement is being nationalised.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A cross-Government personal protective equipment (PPE) sourcing unit, staffed by over 400 people, is securing new supply lines from across the world and has published rigorous standards against which purchases will be made. Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort by British industry to manufacture PPE. The Government has processed over 23,000 cases from over 15,000 suppliers and has contracted with 150 of them. In addition, we are in contact with over 350 potential manufacturers and have signed contracts to manufacture over two billion items of PPE through United Kingdom-based manufacturers. More new manufacturers are expected to commit to producing PPE in the coming weeks.
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, pursuant to to Answer of 10 June 2020 to Question HL3357, how many new supply lines have been secured by the cross-Government personal protective equipment sourcing unit.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The combined Department for International Trade, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department of Health and Social Care efforts have resulted in the Department of Health and Social Care raising Purchase orders for over 17.7 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE); direct from new relationships in source countries, as well as through trusted United Kingdom suppliers to the National Health Service, who themselves are using their global connections to help us. The Government has rapidly processed over 23,000 cases from over 15,000 suppliers to ensure they meet the safety and quality standards that NHS staff need, as well as prioritising offers of larger volumes. The Government has so far actively engaged with over 99% of the companies that have offered PPE and has contracted with over 150 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the UK requires. Additionally, the Government is building up UK manufacturing with signed contracts to manufacture over 2 billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers.
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 he has made of the (a) value of Government PPE procurement contracts and (b) proportion of personal protective equipment orders fulfilled in each year since 2016.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are a number of channels by which personal protective equipment (PPE) is sourced by National Health Service providers. This includes sourcing it independently as well as provision through a central procurement model for a number of years. During the period covered by this question, the NHS Supply Chain created in 2006 underwent a restructuring in April 2018 with the creation of Supply Chain Coordination.
Furthermore in March 2020 a new dedicated unit was set up to focus on securing supplies of PPE. This unit identified PPE suppliers from across the globe to meet the increasing demand for a growing list of PPE products. We have now contracted with over 150 suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the United Kingdom requires.
The multiple channels, changes to structures, administrative practices and routes to source PPE mean that meaningful comparable figures for the years specified are not available.