Lord Strasburger

Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on GOV.UK.

Mr Desmond attended an official business reception in Downing Street in September 2019 alongside a wide range of business representatives.

Otherwise, such requested information would not be centrally collated or held. Notwithstanding, as has been previously noted in Parliament, neither the Prime Minister nor No 10 Downing Street has had any contact with Mr Desmond or his representatives in relation to the Westferry planning application or appeal.

Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on GOV.UK.

Mr Desmond attended an official business reception in Downing Street in September 2019 alongside a wide range of business representatives.

Otherwise, such requested information would not be centrally collated or held. Notwithstanding, as has been previously noted in Parliament, neither the Prime Minister nor No 10 Downing Street has had any contact with Mr Desmond or his representatives in relation to the Westferry planning application or appeal.

Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on GOV.UK.

Mr Desmond attended an official business reception in Downing Street in September 2019 alongside a wide range of business representatives.

Otherwise, such requested information would not be centrally collated or held. Notwithstanding, as has been previously noted in Parliament, neither the Prime Minister nor No 10 Downing Street has had any contact with Mr Desmond or his representatives in relation to the Westferry planning application or appeal.

The Intelligence and Security Committee was reconstituted on 14 July 2020.

We have made use of existing procurement rules which allow the Government to procure at speed in times of emergency, as confirmed in Cabinet Office Guidance circulated to procuring authorities in March. Regulation 32(2)(c) for the direct award of a contract is not a new procedure but its use was necessary due to a highly volatile global market and the extreme urgency at which we had to proceed.

The guidance issued by the Cabinet Office set out a range of options under the Procurement Regulations which can be used depending on urgency and other factors. In addition to direct awards, authorities can reduce the minimum timescales for the open procedure, the restricted procedure and the competitive procedure with negotiation if a state of urgency renders the standard timescales impracticable. All future procurement routes will be considered against the specific requirement and the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 to determine how best to proceed.

We do not intend to publish the list of suppliers who were awarded personal protective equipment contracts after having had their offers reviewed with more urgency as there may be associated commercial implications.

Ensuring the privacy of users and security of their personal data is a priority for the National Health Service and the Government. We follow cyber security best practice to help protect this data and comply with the law around the use of data, including the Data Protection Act 2018. All data is handled according to the highest ethical and security standards and is used only for NHS care, management, evaluation and research into COVID-19, to which individuals may be invited to take part in a research project.

Personal information can only be seen by Public Health England staff working on NHS Test and Trace, the contact tracers working for NHS Professionals and contact tracers, who can only see the information of the named contacts they have been instructed to call.

Three hundred and seventy contracts have been awarded by the Department for the supply of all types of personal protective equipment (PPE). The published Contract Award Notices contain details on the different types of PPE ordered against each contract, information which is not collated centrally prior to publication, as well as the name of the supplier. Purchase orders have been raised against these contracts for over six billion facemasks which are in the process of being delivered to the United Kingdom or have already arrived and are then quality checked at our UK warehouses before being distributed to the frontline.

Information on the unit price of PPE ordered under each contract is considered commercially confidential.

The Government issued a public call to action to support the increased requirements of personal protective equipment (PPE). This resulted in over 15,000 suppliers offering their help and support.

The cross-Government PPE team considered that leads referred by Government officials, ministers’ offices, Parliamentarians, senior NHS staff and other health professionals were likely to be the more credible and needed to be initially reviewed with more urgency. This was commonly referred to as a ‘priority’ or ‘VIP’ channel.

At the point of being prioritised these offers went into exactly the same due diligence, technical assurance, closing or contract negotiation and contract award process as all the other offers. About one in ten suppliers processed through this channel - 47 out of 493 - obtained contracts. We do not intend to publish the list of these suppliers as there may be associated commercial implications.

Three hundred and seventy contracts have been awarded by the Department for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE). All contracts are managed individually and information on the amounts of PPE found not to have been delivered to specification or for which delivery is overdue is not currently collated and held centrally. All contracts have clauses in them that allow the Department to seek redress if the company supplies faulty products or misses delivery dates.

All PPE procured from abroad that arrives at the central PPE distribution warehouse in Daventry is checked. If it is not CE marked then documents are sent to the UK regulators, the Health and Safety Executive and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, who agree to its release as the Market Surveillance Authorities for PPE and medical devices. Products are only released into the supply chain if the documents show the product is fit for its intended use.

Advanced payments have been used on a number of contracts awarded to suppliers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each contract is different; some are payment on delivery and others are a percentage of payment upfront. Our approach has been to take some managed risk in order to secure supplies in an exceptional and globally highly competitive market. Contracts have break clauses in them, meaning if the company supplies faulty products or misses delivery dates, we can cancel the contracts and reclaim our money.

Over 900 contracts have been awarded by the Department and its executive agencies to suppliers for the delivery of goods and services related to the COVID-19 pandemic. To provide a validated assessment of whether an advanced payment has been agreed or not for each of these orders would involve disproportionate cost.

The Department assesses the market conditions for procuring supplies related to any procurement, including those relating to COVID-19, in accordance with procurement guidance and regulations. Where any procurement meets the tests for the use of Regulation 32(2)(c) for the direct award of a contract then that approached will be used. Where it does not, other approaches will be considered.

We have already ordered around 32 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE), of which over 20 billion is already in the United Kingdom. To ensure we can respond rapidly to demand surges in the future, the Department is building a strategic stockpile of PPE. This month, we will have a four-month stockpile of all COVID-19-critical PPE in place. The demand for PPE and the different factors affecting its supply are though kept constantly under review.

The Department has raised 11 purchase orders to PestFix Ltd which relate to seven contracts. One Contract Award Notice has been published which shows that the contract was awarded on 13 April 2020. The other Contract Award Notices will be published shortly. These will contain the dates of the contract award which, as with all the information to be published, is subject to a validation process.

The Research and Ethics Committee (REC) at the Health Research Authority granted ethical approval for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) on 16 April 2020.. The REC made no recommendation to establish an ethics board to oversee the NCCID. Access to data contained in the NCCID is governed by a committee of independent experts, which includes patient representatives, and is tasked with ensuring that applications comply with high ethical standards.

Online guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to coronavirus was published on March 18. Public authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. Available options include a direct award due to extreme urgency and direct award due to absence of competition or protection of exclusive rights.

Over 1,000 purchase orders have been awarded to suppliers for COVID-19 related work, the majority through a direct award. There is no single consideration such as previous experience as to whether a supplier is added to the supply chain. The supplier will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. To provide a validated assessment of solely the previous experience for each of the suppliers on each of these contracts would involve disproportionate cost. Contracts are awarded by the appropriate Departmental accounting officer, an official, in line with Department’s terms and conditions which include clauses for contract management to assess performance and value for money throughout the lifetime of the contract.

Online guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to coronavirus was published on March 18. Public authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. Available options include a direct award due to extreme urgency and direct award due to absence of competition or protection of exclusive rights.

Over 1,000 purchase orders have been awarded to suppliers for COVID-19 related work, the majority through a direct award. There is no single consideration such as previous experience as to whether a supplier is added to the supply chain. The supplier will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. To provide a validated assessment of solely the previous experience for each of the suppliers on each of these contracts would involve disproportionate cost. Contracts are awarded by the appropriate Departmental accounting officer, an official, in line with Department’s terms and conditions which include clauses for contract management to assess performance and value for money throughout the lifetime of the contract.

The data collected for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database is done so under the Control of Patient Information notices issued by the Secretary of State for Health. Consequently, no patient consent is required to collect the data from National Health Service trusts. No patient identifiable data is shared with developers. Images and clinical data points are anonymised before they are sent from each NHS trust to the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust for collation. The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust further verifies that any identifiable data burnt onto the images is removed. Once this step is completed, the anonymised data is uploaded on a cloud-based repository owned by NHSX, and having NHS England as the data controller.

The contract with Palantir will be published in the usual way in due course. The Faculty contract is being negotiated for extension and the contract will be published in the usual way in due course. NHS England does not own a contract with Google or Amazon regarding the NHS COVID-19 Data Store.

The COVID-19 Data Store Reference Library describes the datasets being used in the NHS COVID-19 Data Store, and the sources of those datasets.

As more data is added to support the COVID-19 response the list will be updated.

Data in the NHS COVID-19 Data Store is de-identified by National Health Service staff before the data is analysed on Palantir's platform.

As such, no identifiable data is being accessed by anyone other than the NHS.

Data is only processed under instruction by NHS England and the companies involved cannot use the data for their own purposes.

NHS England is the sole controller of data held within the NHS COVID-19 Data Store and for any data legally shared with them under the notice issued by the Secretary of State under the NHS Control of Patient Information (COPI) Regulations 2002. The notices allow permitted organisations, under Regulation 3(3) of the COPI regulations, to process data only for COVID-19 related purposes. The Department has no plans to establish an ethics board for the NHS COVID-19 Data Store.

The Government are considering a range of options for managing the effect of the outbreak of COVID-19. A careful assessment of any implications for civil liberties (including the impact on human rights, equality and privacy) will be an important part of those considerations.

The national lockdown measures were eased on 4 July and whilst police have powers of enforcement, the policy relies on the four Es approach; engage, explain, encourage, enforce. Where necessary fixed penalty charge notices can be issued in certain circumstances.

The Investigatory Powers Act makes clear that the powers it provides for can only be used for specific statutory purposes, where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.

The award of this contract is the subject of a Judicial Review which has been brought against the Department. The Department is taking legal advice and considering its response. In these circumstances it would inappropriate to respond to the issues and points raised in this question as this might prejudice the Department’s legal position.

NHS England and NHSX are not currently liaising with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) on the publication of patent applications resulting from access to the NHS COVID-19 Data Store under the Re-use of Public Sector Information (RUPSI) Regulations 2015. The IPO is responsible under United Kingdom law for granting UK patents. Patent applications are published by the IPO in the course of the application process as set out in the Patents Act 1977. NHS England and NHSX are keen to encourage healthcare innovations and would certainly discuss with the IPO on how that could be appropriately encouraged.

The NHS COVID-19 Data Store has its own controlled procedure for access where specific criteria related to COVID-19 purposes must be met. There is no uncontrolled access to data in the NHS COVID-19 Data Store. NHS England and NHSX would consider and respond to any request they may receive under the RUPSI Regulations, as those Regulations require.

There are currently no plans for data from the NHSX COVID-19 app to be held in the NHS Data Store. The data a user chooses to submit will be held on a separate database, held to the highest security standards and will remain under the control of the Department and the National Health Service throughout.

The intellectual property associated with the National Health Service COVID-19 app is retained by the Department. In order to promote transparency, the source code for the app is published under version 3.0 of the Open Government Licence. This licence allows NHSX to make the code Open Source whilst retaining its intellectual property rights related to the development of the app.

NHSX requires all academic partners working on the National Health Service COVID-19 app to complete a conflict of interest declaration as part of the onboarding process. The Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford has worked with NHSX in an advisory capacity during the crisis and has confirmed that no IP rests with corporate sponsors from the app programme.

The process for formulating the R number is a complex one. The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), which convenes once a week, builds a consensus on the value of R based on expert scientific advice from multiple academic groups. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies then reviews this and provides advice to the Government on the latest R figure.

Where data are processed by commercial organisations and those data include personally identifiable information, the data processing agreements are included within the contract and published online at ‘Contract Finder’ on GOV.UK. We have published nine of these contracts so far and will continue to publish contracts when they become available. Data processing agreements are not included in contracts where personally identifiable information is not included.

The Government launched its new NHS Test and Trace service on 28 May 2020. This includes enhanced contact tracing.

Public Health England’s local health protection teams and local authority public health teams remain an integral part of the contact tracing system. These teams will be supported by around 25,000 additional contact tracers, a mix of call handlers and health professionals to provide an enhanced, larger scale service to reduce the rate of transmission as lockdown measures start to be eased.

To support the rollout of Test and Trace, all councils have been asked to produce dedicated Local Outbreak Plans by the end of June. £300 million new dedicated funding has been provided to councils to support this.

To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library

Public Health England, supported by the NHS Business Services Authority, is preparing a data protection impact assessment for the NHS Track and Trace information system, and expects to publish this at the time the system is publicly launched.

The app will be one of a number of tools we use in the fight against COVID-19 but it will be voluntary. People will always have a choice of whether or not to download the app and will be able to delete it whenever they like. We see the app as having most value where its use is voluntary and we will look at how we can work with employers and services on this.

App users’ information will be stored securely on their phone. If they choose to share their information with the National Health Service, it will remain under the control of the NHS throughout. Companies working for the NHS to process that data will be bound by data processing agreements that specify how and when the data must be used. Private commercial companies do not have access to personally identifiable data.