Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on consultants for the personal protective equipment programme, including costs associated with the resolution of disputed contracts, between January 2020 to November 2022.

The Department has spent £26.5 million on consultancy and legal costs for all aspects of the personal protective equipment programme, including costs associated with the resolution of legal contracts from April 2020 to November 2022. The programme was established in April 2020, therefore the information requested prior to this date is not held.

At the start of quarter one 2022, examination of contracts where there was some degree of dissatisfaction related to 176 contracts of 394 in total that the Department made. We are on course to recover significant funds through this programme of work.