Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of bringing forward new policies to tackle period poverty.

No specific assessment has been made. However, since 2019 the National Health Service has offered period products to every hospital patient who needs them and people in custody are provided with health and hygiene products for free, including period products.

Since January 2020, a Department for Education scheme provides free period products in schools and educational institutions for 16 to 19 year olds in England. In addition, since 1 January 2021, a zero rate of VAT has applied to all period products. The Period Poverty Taskforce was established in 2019. In March 2020, the work of the Period Poverty Taskforce was paused to focus on the response to the pandemic.