Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) comparative effectiveness against covid-19 of generic face coverings versus face masks with FFP3 protection and (b) potential merits of supplying FFP3 face masks to the general populace.

Public Health England (PHE) has studied the evidence on the efficacy of different types of face coverings, and some of these studies have compared face coverings with surgical masks, although not specifically FFP3s. This evidence, from laboratory studies, suggests that face coverings made of materials such as cotton and polyester materials might block droplets with a filtering efficiency similar to medical masks when folded in two or three layers. The PHE rapid review on this topic is available at the following link:

https://phe.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-retrieve-file.pl?id=5f043ca658db1188ffae74827fa650d9

FFP3s are classed as personal protective equipment (PPE), which is used by frontline health and social care workers in relevant settings. PHE has published guidance setting out who needs PPE and when, based on United Kingdom clinical expertise and World Health Organization standards. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control