Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps have been taken to mobilise UK manufacturing to supply personal protective equipment to frontline workers dealing with the covid-19 response.

The Department are working closely with industry, the National Health Service, social care providers and the army to ensure that personal protective equipment (PPE) are delivered to staff. Industry has reported constraints on supply of new stocks of PPE due to increase in global demand and the impact of COVID-19 in China, one of the largest global manufacturers of PPE. The Department is working to manage demand and secure additional stocks to further enhance our preparedness. The Department have asked manufacturers to increase existing capacity. On Friday 20 March, industry were asked to switch manufacturing capability to produce high priority PPE items.

Latest guidance on PPE can be found on the NHS website at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/guidance-supply-use-of-ppe/