Government PPE Contracts

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right that this is a scandalous waste of public money. Equally...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He made two points, which I will come to in greater detail in...

During the early months of the pandemic, I was contacted by PPE suppliers known to the NHS—they w...

I think it absolutely stinks, and my hon. Friend is absolutely right, in that the public can see ...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the mood in her constituency, as in mine, apposite these dea...

My hon. Friend is right to capture the mood of the public on this. At a time when the public are ...

Obviously in government you have to get on and make decisions, and we do not often get to see wha...

I thank the hon. Member for his comments, but I ask him: how many Members from across the House w...

My right hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does she agree that there is a huge contrast ...

I absolutely agree. This was a global pandemic, yet it is the UK Government who are constantly cr...

I thank the right hon. Lady for giving way; she is making a powerful speech. Today has been a rea...

I thank the hon. Member for his point, and he is absolutely right. The Fire Brigades Union member...

My right hon. Friend has highlighted one particular legal situation, but I am sure she is aware t...

The Chair of the Public Accounts Committee is absolutely right. It is absolutely eye-watering and...

Order. The right hon. Lady is venturing rather too far into the territory that I urged her to avo...

I was not criticising Members from the other place. I am just quoting what a Member from this pla...

Is it not now clear to the public that the Conservative party believes in one thing only: how muc...

My hon. Friend captures the mood of the public. They want answers—they want to know what happened...

My right hon. Friend is making a thoughtful speech which puts every Conservative Member to shame....

It is absolute negligence and neglect of due diligence in the whole process. We now know that the...

My right hon. Friend is making a powerful speech. With the benefit of hindsight, does she agree t...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I would go further. I know from the correspondence I have...

I know that hon. and right hon. Members heard what I said previously. I just want to add that whi...

I am grateful for this opportunity to come to the House to talk about our vital national efforts ...

At the beginning of the pandemic in one of my first Prime Minister’s questions, I asked the then ...

Order.

I will come on to many of the points the hon. Gentleman has raised, but I will just say this abou...

How can the Minister possibly square the fact that Arco, a leading clinical PPE supplier to the N...

There were lots of words there, and lots of aggression. [Interruption.] Let us be frank, there wa...

rose—

Order. The hon. Gentleman must allow the Minister to answer. It is not fair to shout back as soon...

The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner) will know that civil servants had to ta...

Was everything that was done, done perfectly? No, and no doubt all the lessons will be learned bu...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Under those circumstances, in those conditions, we had to be ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Opposition want to have it both ways? They criticise us for ou...

I am keen not to get into a political slanging match on this point, but my hon. Friend is right t...

On civil servants, will the Minister give way?

No. I will come to civil servants in a moment.

Order. The Minister has indicated that he will give way shortly. Let him make a bit of progress.<...

I have given way equally to both sides so far in this debate. I have some reluctance to give way ...

But are you giving way?

I said I will, and I will.

The efforts of civil servants secured billions of items and, by ...

I want to take the Minister back to where he mentioned civil servants. According to the Governmen...

I am pleased that the hon. Lady made that intervention, because it is the first I have heard of s...

rose—

I promise I will come to the hon. Lady.

Those 400 civil servants working on PPE and a senio...

The Minister is being disingenuous to say that. I have never suggested for one moment that civil ...

I will come to that. As I said, due diligence was carried out on all companies. Procurement decis...

Very early on, the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office were looking into the ...

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention, and I will come on to some of the action that we will...

I thank the Minister for giving way again. I reassure him and the House that the Public Accounts ...

I thank the hon. Lady for that response, and I know the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will...

Will the Minister give way?

I have given way once before—

Order. The hon. Lady should not be on her feet when the Minister is answering an intervention fro...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

rose—

I have given way to the hon. Lady once already, as I promised I would, and I have been generous w...

rose—

I also gave way to the hon. Gentleman, so let us leave it.

We should be proud of the remark...

It is a pleasure to follow the Minister’s robust performance. He said at the end that the Governm...

What would the Scottish public think about the Scottish Government awarding PPE contracts, withou...

I hate to say it, but my goodness you are predictable, Sir. That was probably the most predictabl...

Order. I remind the hon. Gentleman that he is in danger of straying. I have let it go so far, but...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will attempt to stay on the right side of that line, and I am ...

Order. I am quite sure that the hon. Gentleman intends to talk just about the process and the goo...

I shall from now on, Madam Deputy Speaker; thank you.

This whole process stinks, and we all...

May I take my hon. Friend back to his comments earlier about due diligence? We all heard the Mini...

That is an excellent question, and perhaps it is a question that, had my hon. Friend managed to i...

I can personally vouch for what my hon. Friend has said about the development of the manufacturin...

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. All the good that we could and should be talking about i...

The hon. Member is talking about the Scottish Government’s track record on procurement and value ...

It is remarkable—we can always spot when a Tory is sinking beneath the waves when they start shou...

Is my hon. Friend aware, as the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Dr Mullan) perhaps is not, th...

One would have hoped that people in glass houses, having thrown the first stone, would have reali...

rose—

I will give way if the Minister can tell us the exact proportion of PPE produced that did not mee...

I will quickly update the House. As of October, we hold 13.1 billion items of PPE and we have dis...

I genuinely thank the Minister for that information and I look forward to reading it in Hansard s...

I rise to support the motion on PPE, which has become a terrible tail of waste for our country. F...

I have a few points for the Minister of State, Department of Health and Social Care, the hon. Mem...

The hon. Member claims that we bought five times too much PPE. This is not the case. We did have ...

I thank the Minister for that intervention. So can he just clarify: if the NHS was given weekly s...

The Minister of State did actually give the House some updated figures on that point. It is not t...

I suppose the facts will reveal themselves when the Minister shows us all the paperwork, leaves i...

My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech and she has spoken with incredible experience and hear...

My hon. Friend makes an extremely valid point. I spoke in Committee this morning. I am not going ...

Order. It is perfectly in order for the hon. Lady to say “incompetent”, but I would be grateful i...

This is so ridiculous, Madam Deputy Speaker. When the Netflix series comes out, nobody is going t...

Order. I will have to put on a time limit of four minutes.

6.17 pm

As an Opposition, we expect to scrutinise the Government, hold them to account and challenge them...

The Government’s actions on PPE were a catalogue of failures from start to finish, with devastati...

I rise to support this motion, but the sentiment that I feel most strongly is, “What a mess—what ...

Members across the House repeatedly warned about the contracts that were being awarded to compani...

I certainly support the motion, and I commend the Opposition for devoting part of their Oppositio...

My hon. Friends have set out very clearly the shocking scandal of the PPE contracts. They have al...

I call the shadow Minister.

6.41 pm

I am delighted to be able to close today’s debate on behalf of His Majesty’s Opposition, and I sh...

To make sure that I get to them, I want to respond to some of the important points made by Back-B...

rose—

I am just going to complete my tour of people’s contributions.

The hon. Member for Brent Ce...

I will give way, but I am trying to respond to everyone’s points first. If Members can hold on, w...

Order. Give the Minister a chance to respond to all the questions. I have tried to give enough ti...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am keen to reply to them. The hon. Gentleman said that only 3%...

rose—

I am literally responding to the hon. Gentleman. He talked about only 3% not being reusable and i...

There are so many questions that I do not know who to give way to, but I think I should start wit...

I thank the Minister for giving way. He attributed comments to me that I did not make, and I just...

I am about to explain the due process that we went through and the incredibly forensic work that ...

Stop shouting!

What did the hon. Member for Brent Central say there? [Interruption.] No, she does not want to re...

claimed to move the closure (Standing Order No. 36).

Question put forthwith, That the Quest...

Order. It is inadvisable for people to shout other things if I am listening for the Ayes having i...