Authorities’s personal figures at odds with PM’s PPE declare

Regardless of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s declare that 70% of non-public protecting tools (PPE) is to be made within the UK, his authorities’s personal figures recommend the whole is prone to be nearer to a 3rd.

Greater than 3.5 billion objects, together with aprons, goggles, facemasks and gloves, have been purchased by the federal government this yr to guard NHS and social care employees from the unfold of coronavirus.

Because the virus took maintain within the spring, the battle to pay money for protecting gear within the face of hovering world demand and disruption to produce chains was likened by consultants to the Wild West.

In July, it was revealed that £15bn had been allotted by the Treasury to purchase such package – equal to about £200 per particular person.

With greater than 80% of PPE objects initially produced in China, considerations have been rising not nearly value however the capacity of the UK to be self-sufficient in key tools.

The prime minister sought to reassure over the UK’s preparedness for a second wave when he addressed the nation on Wednesday. He stated that by December “we count on 70% of the demand for PPE to be met by UK producers, in comparison with simply 1% earlier than the pandemic”.

Contract considerations

However the authorities’s personal PPE technique, revealed simply the day earlier than, makes clear that this 70% quantity excludes gloves – which, in keeping with its figures, make up over half of all PPE being distributed.

The uncooked supplies utilized in gloves implies that no British provider has been discovered. Embody gloves, and the whole variety of objects that will likely be UK-sourced seems to be extra like a 3rd.

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The federal government didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the discrepancy.

Considerations have beforehand been raised over contracts that have been awarded to some UK corporations, notably through the preliminary rush. For instance, 50 million masks provided by Ayanda Capital as a part of a £252m deal couldn’t be used as a result of security considerations.

But when the federal government’s technique goes to plan, having the ability to supply one in three items of apparatus domestically by December would nonetheless imply marked progress in comparison with the beginning of the yr. And with 32 billion objects in complete on order or delivered, the UK isn’t at risk of working out of important bits of apparatus quickly.

Nonetheless, the figures reveal that there could also be extra work to be performed to enhance the UK’s resilience within the face of the menace posed by the virus.