Personal protective equipment (PPE) supply query: FOI release

Information requested

At the UK Covid Inquiry on March 25, Jeane Freeman agreed with the lawyer’s assertion that “the suppliers of PPE in England had been instructed to prioritise English NHS settings over Scotland, even where suppliers were contractually committed to Scottish supply”.

Could you supply any evidence to back this up?

Response

In April 2020, concerns were raised from within the social care sector in Scotland that some PPE suppliers based in England were not willing to supply them. Ms Freeman, in her then capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, asked for – and subsequently received - assurance from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, that there had been no inappropriate UK Government or agency direction not to supply the care sector in Scotland. It transpired that Public Health England had been using certain PPE wholesalers in England to distribute the English pandemic PPE stockpile, in the same way that the Scottish stockpile was issued in Scotland. The restriction in supply therefore related only to that element of overall PPE supplies.

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