Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether current Government funding arrangements adequately support resilience, redundancy and preparedness across healthcare supply chains, including the UK blood supply chain.

The Government keeps the funding and wider arrangements that support the resilience and preparedness of health supply chains, including blood supplies, under review.

Through implementation of Value-Based Procurement (VBP), the Department and NHS England are prioritising resilience in future purchasing decisions. VBP enables consideration of a broader range of factors than upfront cost alone, including patient outcomes, workforce benefits, efficiency, and supply chain considerations.

Alongside this, the Government has committed up to £520 million through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to support investment in the manufacture of medicines, medical diagnostics, and medical technologies in the United Kingdom. The fund is intended to strengthen domestic manufacturing capability and support wider private investment in UK life sciences manufacturing.

Specifically on blood stocks, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for the blood service in England, working closely with the Department to review the criticality and resilience of blood services. NHSBT is taking forward a Blood Supply Chain and Conflict Preparedness Programme to strengthen resilience during routine operations and incidents, including mass casualty events, cyber-attacks, power outages, and conflict scenarios. The Joint Blood Stocks Working Group, jointly chaired by the Department and NHSBT, is also considering measures to support longer-term blood supply resilience. It is due to report in autumn 2026.

More broadly, the Government actively monitors emerging threats to supply resilience and has established shortage management procedures in place to help mitigate patient impact. These include buffer stocks, sourcing alternative products, and use of the Express Freight Service, a global logistics contingency to transport goods in a critical supply disruption.