Recommendation 6

We are concerned that the Department’s ordering of an enormous amount of PPE might compromise government’s ambition to maintain a UK manufacturing base for PPE. Between February and July 2020, the Department ordered 32 billion items of PPE. It intended to build up a stockpile that could last four months. Based on the rate PPE was used between March and July 2020, the amount of PPE that the Department has ordered could last five years (with variations across different types of PPE). Government’s PPE strategy aims to build a UK manufacturing base so that there is a resilient domestic supply. But there is a risk that UK manufacturers of PPE will be unable to sell in the UK if the Department has over-ordered PPE supplies. The Department asserts that this does not mean that it has overordered, since the PPE it has ordered could be used to support primary care and social care and might also be needed for its testing and vaccination programmes and future waves of the virus. The Department has nonetheless committed to considering whether some of its PPE contracts could be reduced or cancelled, and whether it could share or sell some PPE. Recommendation: The Department, working with other government departments where necessary, should set out a plan by July 2021 that shows how it will: • Use the PPE it has ordered, covering how much will be given health and social care providers, stockpiled, cancelled, or sold in the UK or overseas. • Incentivise the NHS Supply Chain, trusts and other providers, to buy PPE which is made in the UK. • Ensure there is sufficient resilience in the supply chain where UK manufacturers cannot provide the necessary PPE.