Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the effectiveness of their standards for personal protective equipment; and what plans they have, if any, to change those standards.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) must be fit for purpose, meeting the necessary essential health and safety requirements of the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 2018.

Through their on-going work on COVID PPE and market surveillance, the Health and Safety Executive are keeping the relevant PPE standards under review and are in frequent contact with end users, trade associations and economic operators to ensure that the standards remain effective.