Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of government expenditure on health care has been paid to private sector organisations in 2020-21 to date.

As of the beginning of November 2020, 937 contracts worth an estimated £17.8 billion have been awarded by the Department and its executive agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for a wide range of products and services including personal protective equipment, the Test and Trace initiative, ventilators, IT, logistics and medicines.

In July, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an extra £31.9 billion of support for health services to respond to COVID-19. At the end of September he announced an additional £16.4 billion for health services.