Twenty-seventh Report - Covid-19: Supply of ventilators

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 685 25 November 2020

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 22 items (10 recs)

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Government Response (AI assessment · 22 of 22 classified)

Accepted 12

Acknowledged 3

Deferred 1

Not Addressed 6

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty seventh report from Session 2019-21 · published 25 Mar 2021

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Recommendations & Conclusions

3 results

3 Recommendation Acknowledged

Despite having to operate at speed, the Department of Health and Social Care still had...

Recommendation

Despite having to operate at speed, the Department of Health and Social Care still had a duty to carry out full due diligence for all parts of the supply chain. In early March, initial attempts by the Department to secure … Read more Despite having to operate at speed, the Department of Health and Social Care still had a duty to carry out full due diligence for all parts of the supply chain. In early March, initial attempts by the Department to secure additional mechanical ventilators through its normal NHS supply chain routes did not produce sufficient devices to bridge the gap between the available stock and what was needed. From 13 March, alongside the ventilator challenge, the Department concentrated its efforts on purchasing ventilators directly from overseas manufacturers and distributors with the help of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Trade. The Department says it did its best to confirm that sellers had CE marked ventilators available for sale and were credible organisations, but that it had not fully looked into the organisations supplying parts for the ventilators that it bought. We recognise that the Department had to operate at pace in the face of increasing global competition and the anticipated imminent spike in cases. But Departments are required by the procurement regulations to carry out due diligence on the organisations they buy from and if this is not done thoroughly, the Department puts itself at risk of funding organisations which may be involved in, for example, bribery and corruption or modern slavery. The Department did write to us one month after our evidence session to say that it had carried out ‘open source checks’ on Chinese suppliers and that it had complied with UK procurement regulations. However, it is not clear to what extent open source checks are sufficient to provide assurance over the full supply chain. Recommendations: The Department of Health & Social Care should set out in its Treasury Minute response its view of the risk resulting from the speed of its due diligence on its purchase of ventilators and how it is ensuring that its due diligence procedures for future procurements cover the full supply chain during eme Show less

Government Response Summary

The government agreed, explaining that due diligence for most purchases followed standard processes, but was limited during the emergency. It stated confidence that increased capacity and improved horizon scanning will reduce the future need for rapid, less thorough procurement.

HM Treasury

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20 Conclusion Acknowledged

From the outset, Cabinet Office’s strategy was to support a number of both new and...

Conclusion

From the outset, Cabinet Office’s strategy was to support a number of both new and existing designs. This was to provide it with insurance against new designs not meeting the regulatory standards on time and the likelihood of it facing … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agreed, stating it owns viable emergency ventilator designs with standard licensing terms (though no revenue generated yet), and has developed and shared a document on lessons learned from the Ventilator Challenge.

HM Treasury

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21 Conclusion Acknowledged

In total the Cabinet financed 18 devices from 17 challenge participants over the course of...

Conclusion

In total the Cabinet financed 18 devices from 17 challenge participants over the course of the challenge; the majority of which were either completely new designs or modifications of existing designs. Through its technical design process, which eliminated devices based … Read more

Government Response Summary

HM Treasury

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