Recommendation 17

Prior to the pandemic, the role of procuring and managing PPE was largely the responsibility of Supply Chain Co-ordination Limited.50 In March 2020, when the Department realised that SCCL alone would not be able to procure the volume of PPE required, the Department took a more central role in PPE procurement.51 SCCL continued play an active role though, procuring a total of 17.4 billion PPE items through contracts worth £5.2 billion. With the need for further procurement now seen as unlikely, the Department passed responsibility for managing the supply of PPE back over to SCCL from April 2022.52 Oversight of SCCL was transferred from the Department to NHS England and NHS Improvement in October 2021.53 NHS England’s Chief Commercial Officer is now the Senior Responsible Officer for SCCL and meets quarterly with the SCCL executive team to discuss performance.54