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 stockpile ventilators to prepare for a future pandemic.

As part of its response to COVID-19, the Government procured a large range of essential respiratory equipment, including ventilators, for use in the NHS across the UK. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) continues to maintain this Intensive Care Unit (ICU) equipment reserve, which includes a range of mechanical and non-invasive ventilators. These ventilators are available to be deployed to the NHS, in the event of surges in acute COVID or respiratory cases.

Learning the lessons from COVID-19, we are working with the Centre for Pandemic Preparedness (CPP) in the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to ensure a flexible and capabilities-based approach to pandemic preparedness.

The Government’s strategic approach to pandemic preparedness constantly evolves in response to new scientific information, lessons learned from prior pandemics, as well as responses to other infectious disease outbreaks and rigorous exercising to test our response mechanisms.