Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total value of contracts awarded to PPE MedPro in 2020 was to help the Government’s response to covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Two contracts have been awarded to PPE MedPro by the Department with a total value of £202 million.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what records are available relating to the awarding of funding by the Government to the Medical Detection Dogs charity as part of the covid-19 response.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The announcement of Government funding the trials can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-detection-dogs-trial-launches
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSTHM) published information relating to the funding award on their website, which specifies the amount awarded to LSTHM to conduct the research, which can be found at the following link: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2020/uk-government-supports-covid-19-detection-dogs-trial
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what records his Department holds relating to the (a) intended and (b) ultimate use of funding awarded by the Government to the Medical Detection Dogs charity as part of the covid-19 response.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s (LSTHM) letter of application states the intended purposes of the research grant. Annex 2 of the Grant Agreement with LSTHM details the activities that funding be directed towards. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Phase 1 trial report will outline how these funds have been used to determine whether trained dogs can discriminate pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic and mild cases of SARS-CoV-2 from uninfected individuals by their smell, using breath and odour samples.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of people successfully reached by the Isolation Assurance Service.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Between 9 June and 7 September 2020, the Isolation Assurance Service (IAS) made 149,579 total calls and texts resulting in 66,773 successful contacts to eligible arrivals. The IAS activity includes up to three calls and a text per eligible United Kingdom arrival sampled. This is the most recent data published in the format requested.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a list of the companies awarded contracts via the high priority lane for procurement since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In March 2020 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 National Health Service 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 ‘high 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. The Department has to consider the position of suppliers in terms of the recognition that disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position and could have a potentially detrimental impact on their revenue and/or their ability to obtain future contracts. Contract Award Notices and the contracts themselves have now been published for all the PPE contracts awarded by the Department which contain the details of the supplier, the value of the contract and the items ordered under the contract.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money has been spent on contracts awarded via the high priority lane for procurement since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In March 2020 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 National Health Service 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 ‘high 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. The Department has to consider the position of suppliers in terms of the recognition that disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position and could have a potentially detrimental impact on their revenue and/or their ability to obtain future contracts. Contract Award Notices and the contracts themselves have now been published for all the PPE contracts awarded by the Department which contain the details of the supplier, the value of the contract and the items ordered under the contract.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria have been applied in the awarding of contracts via the high priority lane for procurement since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In March 2020 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 National Health Service 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 ‘high 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. The Department has to consider the position of suppliers in terms of the recognition that disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position and could have a potentially detrimental impact on their revenue and/or their ability to obtain future contracts. Contract Award Notices and the contracts themselves have now been published for all the PPE contracts awarded by the Department which contain the details of the supplier, the value of the contract and the items ordered under the contract.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many contracts have been awarded via the high priority lane for procurement since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In March 2020 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 National Health Service 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 ‘high 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. The Department has to consider the position of suppliers in terms of the recognition that disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position and could have a potentially detrimental impact on their revenue and/or their ability to obtain future contracts. Contract Award Notices and the contracts themselves have now been published for all the PPE contracts awarded by the Department which contain the details of the supplier, the value of the contract and the items ordered under the contract.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to protect covid-19 testing site workers on outsourced contracts carrying out aerosol generating procedures.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A COVID-19 test is not an aerosol generating procedure, nor is processing of lateral flow devices. We have a number of measures in place to maintain health and safety at sites. These include strict social distancing, sites are cleaned multiple times a day to ensure very high standards of hygiene and the use of personal protective equipment in line with the latest guidance.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any service level credits have been applied to contracts to run the Isolation Assurance Service.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
There have been no service level credits awarded by Public Health England to the contractor working on the Isolation Assurance Service (IAS) and no refunds have been sought. The IAS contractor has met all obligations under the contract to present.