Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many units of Personal Protective Equipment purchased by the UK are stored in China.
Answered by Will Quince
As of 26 September 2022, there was an approximately 589 million items of personal protective equipment stored in China. The majority of this stock is suitable for use in health and social care settings.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many units of personal protective equipment are currently in storage in warehouses; and what the cost to the public purse is of that storage.
Answered by Will Quince
As of 26 September 2022, there were 7.4 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) stored in warehouses in the United Kingdom. In 2022/23, these storage costs are an average of £2.2 million per week.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many civil servants in his Department are employed to manage the storage of Personal Protective Equipment overseas.
Answered by Will Quince
Three full-time equivalent (FTE) staff are employed at the SCS1 pay band and 0.5 FTE at SCS2 for all storage, including overseas.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many units of personal protective equipment are currently in storage in shipping containers; and what is the cost to the public purse of that storage.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department estimates that 3.95 billion units of personal protective equipment are currently stored in containers. The cost of this storage for the month of September 2022 was approximately £7.7 million.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2022 to Question 18920, on Department of Health and Social Care: Protective Clothing, when her Department began employing three full-time equivalent staff at the SCS1 pay band and 0.5 full-time equivalent staff at SCS2 to oversee the storage of personal protective equipment; and whether the same number of staff are currently employed for that purpose.
Answered by Will Quince
These staff were employed from 1 October 2021 and are currently employed for this purpose.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June to Question 24604, how much her Department spent on external recruitment consultants in 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with which other Departments her Department has had discussions on the storage of PPE since 1 January 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Since January 2022, the Department has held discussions on the storage of personal protective equipment with the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the Ministry of Defence.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on how many occasions since 1 January 2022 has (a) he or (b) his predecessor received requests from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss the cost of the storage of personal protective equipment.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Department remains in regular contact with HM Treasury regarding the cost of storing personal protective equipment.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) Government officials and (b) officials in her Department are employed to oversee the storage of personal protective equipment.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Department has 3.5 full time equivalent staff whose role is wholly dedicated to overseeing the management of personal protective equipment storage.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2022 to Question 125078 on Protective Clothing: Storage, how many units of personal protective equipment were in storage in warehouses as of 14 February 2022; and what the cost is to the public purse of that storage.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 14 February 2022, there were 6.2 billion items of personal protective equipment in warehouse storage in the United Kingdom and China at a cost of £4 million per week.