Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Warley dated 13 May 2021 on Mr Ahmed and test and trace.
Answered by Edward Argar
We replied to the hon. Member on 9 August 2021.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure adequate standards of (a) food, (b) cleanliness and (c) safety in covid-19 quarantine hotels.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Hotels providing managed quarantine facilities can meet the vast majority of dietary requirements and must provide guests with three meals a day. Enhanced cleaning regimes take place throughout the hotel and guests are provided with their own cleaning equipment for their rooms. The Department has ensured that vulnerable people in quarantine hotels are signposted to the appropriate support and safeguarding procedures are followed where appropriate. All hotels have a security presence and access to an onsite medic 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Department engages with hotels and service providers on a regular basis to monitor the quality and effectiveness of the services provided.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the value is of personal protective equipment purchased by the NHS in 2021 to date; and how much of that equipment was manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill
In financial year 2021/22, the total spend on personal protective equipment (PPE) to date is £330.5million. Of this, spend on PPE manufactured in the United Kingdom totals £96.2M.
The Department created the dedicated UK Make programme to increase domestic production. UK Make contracted with manufacturers in the UK able to mobilise and produce PPE for the frontline. However, not all UK-based manufacturers which provided PPE to healthcare settings were part of this programme.
The PPE programme raised contracts with 31 UK manufacturers and those contracts were all contracted by July 2020. We continue to receive goods purchased under those contracts and by 1 December 2020 inbound supply of UK manufactured PPE was sufficient to meet 82% of demand for PPE over the peak pandemic period of December to February, across all items except gloves.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what value of personal protective equipment the NHS has purchased in 2021 to date; and how much of that equipment was manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason a volunteer covid-19 vaccinator is required to have two A-levels.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There is no specific requirement for a volunteer COVID-19 vaccinator to have two A-levels. Prospective volunteer COVID-19 vaccinators will have a competency assessment to ensure they can safely administer vaccines to patients under the clinical supervision of an experienced health care professional, and they will undergo relevant clinical training and supervision, put together by NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England.