Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2025 to Question 31569 on Coronavirus: Protective Clothing, if he will make an estimate of the (a) weekly and (b) total cost to the public purse of storing PPE related to Covid-19 in 2025.

The programme to dispose of excess COVID-19 related personal protective equipment (PPE) stock through sales, donations, recycling and energy from waste concluded in January 2025.

The storage costs for COVID-19 related PPE incurred in January 2025 were £300,000. In January 2024 and January 2023, the storage costs were £7,700,000 and £18,600,000 respectively.