Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that staff at covid-19 vaccination centres are equipped with full personal protective equipment.

As the largest vaccination programme in the United Kingdom’s history begins, we have worked closely with the National Health Service to understand the personal protective equipment (PPE) needs of the vaccination programme and are confident we can provide a continuous supply to support the rollout in the coming months.

Since February 2020, we have ordered almost 32 billion items of PPE. The majority of this PPE has either been delivered or is en route. By December 2020, we had built a four-month stockpile of all COVID-19 critical PPE, with a tremendous contribution from UK manufacturers. This enables the Government to provide a continuous supply of PPE to the frontline throughout the winter.