1.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2021 1.2 NHS providers maintain asset registers of critical equipment. In the short term, the processes established for the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that a national view of critical equipment together with any associated required information can be quickly gathered when needed. Should information on a different type of equipment be required this process would be repeated. 1.3 In the longer term, consideration is being given to how information in local asset registers could be standardised to ease consolidation. This could include promotion of standardised taxonomies for product descriptions and the adoption of standards for information exchange. 1.4 The equipment purchased as part of the COVID-19 response has both increased NHS provider capacity and created a strategic reserve of equipment for use in future incident responses. Together this should significantly reduce the need for future rapid equipment procurement. 1.5 However, should future rapid procurement of equipment be required, variants of the processes used for COVID would be used. The National Audit Office reviewed these processes, reporting that they provided effective management and sought to control costs where they could be controlled. 1.6 Inevitably, the circumstances of any future rapid procurement may differ from those experienced in early 2020 and so the department would expect to adjust, and where possible improve, the processes accordingly. 1.7 As part of the COVID response, strategic reserves of equipment, consumables, medicines and PPE have been created to provide additional capacity to meet future surges. 1.8 Whilst these stockpiles have been designed to meet immediate needs, once the pressures of COVID have subsided, we would expect to review stockpile levels to ensure that they remain appropriate given up- to-date assessment of the risks facing the UK.