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Written question asked by Peter Bone (Conservative) on Wednesday, 22 April 2020, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 April 2020 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Monday, 27 April 2020. A substantive answer was provided by Jo Churchill (Conservative) on Friday, 12 June 2020 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Body Bags

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of body bags available for use by (a) the NHS and (b) funeral directors.

Answer

The Government published ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): personal protective equipment (PPE) plan’ on 10 April. It incorporates guidance on who needs PPE and when they need it, routes to ensure those who need it can get it at the right time and sets out actions to secure enough PPE to last through the crisis. PPE includes aprons, eye protectors, face masks, gloves, gowns, hand hygiene, clinical waste bags and body bags.

In addition to making PPE available to National Health Service trusts, primary care and adult social care, we are also delivering PPE to all Local Resilience Forums (LRFs). These multi-agency LRF partnerships are made up of representatives from local public services, including the emergency services, local authorities, the NHS, the Environment Agency and others. This enables LRFs to respond to urgent local spikes in need across the adult social care system and other front-line services, including mortuary and funeral services where providers are unable to access PPE through their usual routes.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
38881
Session
2019-21
Subjects
Funerals NHS Body bags
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk