Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
The Cabinet Office’s ventilator challenge, which encouraged UK businesses to develop new ventilators from scratch...
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office’s ventilator challenge, which encouraged UK businesses to develop new ventilators from scratch and increase the production of existing products or modified designs, was undoubtedly a significant achievement. In total, it produced around 15,000 mechanical ventilators in the space of just four months, over 1.5 times the number available to the NHS at the start of the pandemic. The Cabinet Office estimated it would normally take a decade to produce this amount and described it as a “terrific response” from British industry and designers.23
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
4.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Ta rget implementation date: June 2021 4.2 The Government Commercial Function is in the process of updating the Outsourcing Playbook V2 which will be launched as a Sourcing Playbook in Spring/Summer 2021 and will incorporate the lessons from the Ventilator Challenge that can be applied to future programmes. The Ventilator Challenge lessons will be captured as a case study and used as part of training on risk - this will be disseminated as part of the regular knowledge sharing sessions with government departments.