Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much personal protective clothing and other medical items stored in China by the NHS remains in storage; what has been the accumulated cost of storage; how much has been destroyed; and what will happen to that which remains.

Since July 2023 all of the Department’s personal protective equipment stock has been stored at sites within the United Kingdom. The total cost of storing items in the freeport in China was £60.6 million for the years 2020 until 2023, when we exited the site.

3,058 million items stored in China, or around 80% of the total volume, were sent to the UK for use in health and social care settings. 57 million items, or around 1.5% of the total volume, have been donated. 699 million items, or around 8% of the total volume, were recycled into energy from waste, which was by far the most cost-effective means of disposal readily available.