Asked by: Lord Anderson of Ipswich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any health equipment with constituent parts made using forced labour has entered the UK supply chain since January 2020.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Suppliers appointed to the NHS Supply Chain framework contracts, which supply the majority of medical goods and services into the National Health Service, must comply with the Labour Standards Assurance System or they can be removed from consideration for future opportunities. If there is an allegation of modern slavery practices against a company supplying medical goods or services into the United Kingdom, these are investigated. The Department does not have a record of any breaches of the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 since January 2020. Information on procurement by NHS trusts and foundation trusts is not held centrally.