Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what use they have made of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency in attempting to procure personal protective equipment for the NHS.

To date, seven allied and nine partner nations have requested international assistance through the NATO Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC). In chronological order of requesting, these are: Ukraine, Spain, Montenegro, Italy, Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Colombia, Slovenia, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Bulgaria, Tunisia and Iraq. Many of these requests were for personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also asked for airlift support. The United Kingdom has not requested assistance through the EADRCC but we have responded to a small number of requests, including from Ukraine, Georgia, North Macedonia and Moldova, where PPE and medical equipment has been supplied. In these cases, equipment has been procured locally in the country concerned and within the constraints of our domestic response.

As part of the COVID-19 PPE team seconded to work with the Cabinet Office on PPE procurement, teams from Defence Equipment and Support have been using the NATO Support and Procurement Agency framework to order PPE for the National Health Service.