Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government who are the members of the clearance board put in place by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Office to approve contracts for personal protective equipment worth more than £5 million; and how many contracts have they approved so far this year.

The clearance board was chaired by the Government’s Deputy Chief Commercial Officer or the Department’s Commercial Director. Standing members were the Commercial Officer, the Commercial Director and the Department’s Deputy Director of Procurement and the Deputy Director of Finance. It was also attended by a number of cross Government and cross functional teams including Government Legal Department, the Department’s anti-fraud unit, and Department for Health and Social Care and Cabinet Office’s commercial colleagues. All these personnel were Government officials.

The role of the board was to decide whether any deal of £5 million or more should be passed to the Department’s procurement and finance teams for accounting officer consideration and final formal approval.